Stopped at sea: Abdul Muhaimin (left) and two detainees at the MMEA Selangor headquarters. — KK SHAM/ The Star
KLANG: A 46-year-old man from Perak snuck out of the country to visit his pregnant second wife without his first wife’s knowledge.
He landed in hot water when he was arrested while returning from Indonesia via an illegal route. His passport was being held by his first wife.
The man, a lorry driver, who just arrived from Tanjung Balai in Indonesia, told officers he had travelled to Medan to visit his pregnant second wife.
“My second wife was pregnant and in critical condition, which is why I decided to take an illegal route to Medan,” he said.
He could not travel by air as his passport was held by the first wife.
“I didn’t want my first wife to know about my second marriage. This is the first time I used the back route because she held my passport,” he said.
He had to make a long journey back, with several stops along the way, after spending four to five days in Indonesia.
He was among two local men and 26 undocumented migrants detained aboard an unregistered fibreglass boat during a special operation conducted by the Selangor Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in the early hours of Monday.
Another man, a single father from Aceh, Indonesia, risked his life crossing the sea with his three-month-old daughter after his wife disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a note.
“I have no one in Malaysia. My baby is only three months old. I just want to go home,” the 32-year-old man, who wanted to be known only as Raja, told MMEA officers.
He had borrowed money to return to Aceh as both his parents are dead, and his only remaining family is a married sister.
Raja was found on a pom-pom boat that had yet to depart.
Selangor MMEA director Maritime Captain Abdul Muhaimin Muhammad Salleh said that by detaining the two boats, his team had successfully thwarted attempts to smuggle illegal migrants into and out of the country via Selangor waters.
The fibreglass boat without a registration number was detained at about 12.30am, roughly 1.5 nautical miles southwest of Bagan Nakhoda Omar, Sabak Bernam.
It was operated by a 36-year-old Myanmar skipper and had 26 Indonesian illegal migrants on board, specifically 17 men and nine women.
The pom-pom boat was stopped at around 2am about two nautical miles south-west of the same area.
“The boat was operated by a skipper and two Indonesian crew members. There were 24 illegal migrants, comprising 19 men and five women aged between 22 and 64, and a three-month-old baby girl,” Abdul Muhaimin said.
