KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 – The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has saved 2,667 people and properties worth RM780 million in Malaysian waters since its inception in 2006. Its deputy director-general (operations), Maritime Admiral Datuk Ahmad Puzi Ab Kahar said those rescued were fishermen, passengers (local and foreign nationals), illegal immigrants, and fishermen who were plucked to safety from
drifting, sinking or burning vessels, as well as divers. He said the worth of properties saved were based on the value of ships, boats and ferries saved.
The number of people rescued by the MMEA increased from year to year since the MMEA took over the function of providing surveillance of Malaysian waters from the Marine Department on June 6, 2006, he told Bernama in an interview in conjunction with the eighth anniversary of the agency’s on Feb 15. Ahmad Fuzi said 485 people were rescued last year compared to 342 in 2006 while 486 people were found dead and 208 missing in search and rescue operations conducted by the MMEA for the past seven years.
He said the MMEA also attended to emergency calls from people living along the shores and had airlifted sick foreign passengers from ships to hospitals. Ahmad Fuzi said at present at least 35 MMEA ships and boats were patrolling the country’s shoreline round the clock.
“MMEA resolves to quicken the response time from two hours at present to one hour upon receiving information,” he added.
On the MMEA aerial fire-fighting capability, he said the first batch of 20 pilots trained at the MMEA air station in Subang would be commissioned at the end of the year.
“Until then, we enlist the services of Royal Malaysian Air Force and police pilots to fly our helicopters if there are emergency cases at sea,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said the RM270 million Malaysian Maritime Academy and Training Centre in Sungai Ular, Kuantan, which would be opened by the Sultan of Pahang Sultan Ahmad Shah next month, would derive its lecturers from the MMEA itself. Equipped with a swimming pool and a shooting range, he said the academy would be able to help the MMEA increase its manpower up to 20,000 personnel by 2020 from about 4,000 for at present only about 900 employees recruited annually.
BERNAMA
