MMEA Officer Killed in Perlis Migrant Boat Chase

A Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency officer died in the early hours of October 27 after the patrol vessel he was on struck a coastal wall in Perlis waters during a pursuit of a suspected migrant vessel.

The MMEA crew was chasing a vessel believed to hold nine Myanmar nationals when the collision happened around 12:30 am near Sungai Padang. Four personnel were thrown into the sea. Maritime Senior Rating (Technical) Mohd Roshaimi Mohd Ridzuan, 41, was not among those immediately accounted for; his body was found roughly an hour after the initial headcount. Three other MMEA members were injured in the incident.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail confirmed the death in parliament. No details on the fate of the vessel under pursuit were disclosed in initial reports.

The Perlis coastline sits near the Malaysia-Thailand maritime border, an area where MMEA crews routinely intercept vessels moving undocumented migrants northward or southward through the Strait of Malacca approaches. Patrol collisions in night operations in confined inshore waters carry elevated risk, and this incident is one of the more serious to claim an officer's life in recent memory.