TAIPEI: Taiwan registered fishing vessel was stopped and detained by Indonesian authorities on suspicion of incorrect documents while traveling through the Strait of Malacca in the Southeast Asian country’s territorial waters Sunday.
The Da Wei No. 13, based in Donggang, Pingtung County, was detained and investigated by Indonesian authorities, the country’s customs officials said.
Earlier, a staff member of a fishermen organization’s radio station based in Pingtung claimed that the vessel was intercepted by the Indonesian military.
An official from a fishermen association in the southern county also said that in recent months there have been reports of Taiwanese smuggling drugs into Indonesia, hence the Indonesian military have strengthened their efforts to check Taiwanese fishing vessels but would free them if no problem was found.
However, in a CNA interview, Indonesian customs official Marsma said that the Taiwanese vessel was not intercepted by the military as the navy did not have information of this case.
According to an unnamed intermediary of the matter, the fishing boat is currently being investigated by Indonesian customs officials on the grounds that the boat’s documents were in question and they wanted to know if the ship was carrying any illegal items.
