A recent incident posted on Facebook by Agensi Penguatkuasaan Maritim Malaysia shows how they have been thrown diesel boats by 19 Vietnamese fishermen in order to avoid being checked by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).
According to the post, 19 Vietnamese fishermen were detained after they throw diesel bombs at the MMEA boat after they have been discovered and chased on Malaysian waters.
Officers who were on the MMEA boat had no choice but to fire warning shots into the air to warn the fishermen and make sure the safety of their MMEA crews are in place. Unfortunately, the shots were completely be ignored.
In the post, Kelantan State Maritime Director, Maritime Captain Muhd Nur Syam Asmawie bin Yaacob said, “In the incident that just happened, second warning shot has been fired but they chose to ignore and kept throwing diesel bombs and rubbers that have been lightened up in order to make our boat burn down. They also throw hard objects to the officers until there are parts of the boat get damaged.”
Officers then were forced to open fire on the fishermen just to protect the security of government assets and crews of MMEA. They managed to detain the fishermen and their two boats, though one of the fishermen was shot.
“Two of the boats did not have a fishing permit under the Fisheries Act 1985 and also have committed offenses under the Immigration Act 1959/63, while all of the fishermen did not have any valid personal documentation,” he added.
The catches, boats, and diesel were estimated to be worth around RM2 million.