REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The bodies of 11 Indonesian victims who died in a boat accident in Sabak Bernam, Malaysia, have been repatriated to their respective families.

"The bodies of at least 11 victims will be repatriated this morning. Six bodies were repatriated to Aceh, three to Medan, and two to East Java," Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno L.P. Marsudi stated here on Tuesday.

The foreign minister earlier noted that seven bodies of the victims had been sent back to their families.

"We have obtained confirmation that the bodies have been received by the families. The repatriation process was carried out in coordination with the local government," she remarked.

Marsudi pointed out that the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team of the Indonesian police faced difficulties in identifying the bodies as they were no longer intact.

Therefore, the DVI team will focus on identifying the victims through DNA sampling.

Earlier, a six-member DVI team of the Indonesian police was scheduled to leave for Malaysia on Monday evening to help in identifying the bodies of the victims of a recent boat mishap.

"This evening, the Indonesian police will send a DVI team to Malaysia," Executive Director of DVI Indonesia Senior Commissioner Anton Castilani stated here on Monday.

The team comprises two forensic specialists, a forensic dentist, a DNA specialist, and two fingerprint specialists from the Indonesia Automatic Finger System (Inafis), he revealed.

The team is part of a joint operations team of the Indonesian police and the Foreign Ministry, he noted.

So far, the Malaysian SAR team has discovered 57 bodies of the victims of the boat mishap. Twenty people survived the accident.

Castilani said only 50 of the 57 bodies have been taken to the hospital, while the rest are still in a boat.

The 50 bodies have been laid in state at Ipoh, Sabak Bernam, and Sungai Intan Hospitals in Malaysia.

"Ten of the 57 dead victims have been identified visually. However, the identification is not valid, and further identification is needed," he remarked.

The DVI is making efforts to gather antemortem data from the relatives of the dead victims to facilitate the identification process.

A boat carrying 70 Indonesian citizens capsized in the waters of Sabak Bernam, Selangor, Malaysia, on Thursday.

The Indonesian passengers, who are illegal migrants, were believed to have departed from Kuala Sungai Bernam and were on their way to Tanjung Balai Asahan, Indonesia, Kosmo Online reported.

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