KOTA KINABALU, Nov 7 — The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN)’s vessel KD Paus has detected and detained a foreign boat believed to be carrying out illegal fishing activities in Malaysian waters.
KD PAUS commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Nor Hisham Rahman said the fishing boat was located at 149 nautical miles from Kota Kinabalu at noon yesterday.
It was subsequently detained and inspected along with its 16 crew members.
“The inspection found that all boat crew members are Vietnamese citizens. The boat was then pushed back to sea and given a strong warning not to do any fishing activities in the Malaysian maritime zone in the future,” he said in a statement here today.
He said the RMN would not compromise in safeguarding the sovereignty of the country’s waters and to continue patrols and monitoring activities.
The move is necessary to prevent any illegal maritime activities and to avert the spread of COVID-19 pandemic by illegal immigrants from the sea route, he said.
