Indonesia Police said on Sunday that they had made significant progress in identifying the bodies of scores of asylum seekers who drowned after their boat capsized off East Java on Dec. 17.
Sr. Comr. Didi Agus Mintadi, the head of the East Java Police’s medical and health unit, said that at the outset of the identification process, police had only 17 reports of missing persons to tie to the 85 bodies being kept at the police hospital in Surabaya.
Since then, however, at least 72 reports of missing persons have been filed, making it easier to identify each body, he said. He added that 36 bodies had already been positively identified. The death toll from the sinking is 95 so far.
The boat was carrying an estimated 250 asylum seekers from the Middle East when it capsized on the way to Australia. Four people have been named suspects in the case, including two crew members on the boat and two people who allegedly supplied the boat to the asylum seekers.
JG
Sr. Comr. Didi Agus Mintadi, the head of the East Java Police’s medical and health unit, said that at the outset of the identification process, police had only 17 reports of missing persons to tie to the 85 bodies being kept at the police hospital in Surabaya.
Since then, however, at least 72 reports of missing persons have been filed, making it easier to identify each body, he said. He added that 36 bodies had already been positively identified. The death toll from the sinking is 95 so far.
The boat was carrying an estimated 250 asylum seekers from the Middle East when it capsized on the way to Australia. Four people have been named suspects in the case, including two crew members on the boat and two people who allegedly supplied the boat to the asylum seekers.
JG
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