By Ainur Romah
JAKARTA
Indonesia is encouraging relatives of people that may have died in the sinking of a migrant boat off Malaysia’s coast to contact authorities, with dozens of bodies still unidentified.
More than 60 people are thought to have lost their lives when the vessel capsized Thursday off the western coast of Malaysia while heading home for a religious festival.
"As of Monday afternoon, the number of migrant workers found was 81 people, 61 of them dead," a spokesperson for Indonesia's embassy to Malaysia said in a short message to Anadolu Agency on Monday.
The embassy added that it had placed staff at three hospitals where dozens of bodies have still not been identified, and a disaster victim identification (DVI) team would be sent to Malaysia to assist in the identification process.
Director of Citizens and Legal Entities Protection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, said that victim identification was facing some obstacles as there was no ship's manifest and the boat wasn't travelling a conventional route.
"The passengers also do not know each other. It is difficult for the team to focus on the target DNA sampling," he said.
A total of 20 people -- 19 men and one woman, mostly from Aceh province in northern Sumatra island -- were rescued after the around 15-meter vessel sank 10 miles from Malaysian shores.
Iqbal, said those who survived would be repatriated along with the 17 victims who had so far been identified.
Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened a hotline for those who think their families were on board -- among them a mother and father travelling home for their daughter's wedding.
Their bodies have still not been found, along with their sons' wives.
The two sons survived, while another told Anadolu Agency that the family is undecided as to whether it should continue or cancel the wedding.
"My sister is in shock and has confined herself to her room," the son said.
