Port dickson: Thirty-three Indonesian nationals were detained yesterday after allegedly entering Malaysian waters through an ungazetted sea route off Port Dickson. Melaka and Negeri Sembilan Maritime director Maritime Captain Salehuddin Zakaria said the group, aged between 13 and 58, comprised 21 men and 12 women, including a boat skipper.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the group was detained during Op Benteng and Op Tiris patrols after maritime personnel spotted a suspicious speedboat without a registration number about 0.7 nautical miles southwest of Kuala Lukut Beach at 9.30 pm. 'The boat was ordered to stop for inspection, but the skipper sped away in an attempt to evade the inspection. Maritime personnel gave chase before successfully intercepting and detaining the boat,' he said in a statement here today.

Salehuddin said further checks found that none of the individuals possessed valid travel documents to be in Malaysian waters, and they were believed to have attempted to enter the country illegally. He said the use of speedboats via hard-to-detect sea routes is believed to be a modus operandi to evade detection and inspection by the authorities.

'All the foreign nationals, the skipper and the speedboat were taken to the Melaka and Negeri Sembilan Maritime Headquarters jetty for further action and investigation,' he said. He said the case is being investigated under the Immigration Act 1959/63 and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (ATIPSOM).