BATAM, Indonesia (AFP) - The death toll from aboat accident in Indonesia has climbed to 54, an official said on Friday (Nov 4), after dozens of bodies were found floating in the ocean.

Search teams on Friday pulled another 36 corpses from the sea around Batam island, south of Singapore, near where the boat struck a reef and sunk more than two days ago, local police chief Sam Budi Gusdian told reporters.

The overcrowded boat was carrying three crew and 98 passengers, mostly Indonesian migrant workers, from Malaysia to Batam at the time of the accident.

Authorities managed to save 41 passengers and had hoped to find more alive before making the grisly discovery.

"Forty-one people have been found alive, while six remain missing. The rest died," Brigadier General Gusdian told reporters.

Only 12 passengers have been formally identified, he added. Among the dead were two young girls.

Police said the passengers were likely illegal Indonesian migrant workers returning from jobs in Malaysia, and the boat was over capacity at the time of the accident.

One of the crew members managed to survive and was being questioned by police, Brig Gen Gusdian said.

The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is heavily dependent on boat transport, but safety standards are lax and fatal accidents common.

More than 60 people died in December when huge waves capsized a ferry charting a course through Sulawesi province.</s>The death toll from a boat accident off an Indonesian island rose to 36 on the third day of a search for survivors, police said, with hopes fading on Friday for 24 people still missing.

A packed speed boat carrying 98 Indonesian migrant workers, most of them illegal, and three crew sank off Indonesia's Batam island at around dawn on Wednesday, having departed from Malaysia's southern state of Johor.

Airlangga, a police spokesman for Riau Islands, which includes Batam, put the latest death toll at 36.

Police say 41 survivors have been found. A crew member has been detained on suspicion of a shipping violation, and police were looking for the captain, who had fled. The fate of a third crew member was unknown.</s>JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll in the sinking of an overcrowded boat carrying Indonesian migrant workers climbed to 51 on Friday after rescuers found more bodies.

Police and rescue agency officials said by late Friday morning a further 33 bodies had been recovered from the sea off the Indonesian island of Batam.

There were 101 people on the speedboat carrying migrant workers and their families that capsized in stormy weather early Wednesday morning, and 39 of the passengers were rescued. Two of its three crew also survived and were later arrested. Nine people are still missing.

“This search is not easy,” said Abdul Hamid, head of the local search and rescue agency. “Strong winds and currents were hampering our efforts and the sea was murky, making it difficult for rescuers to look below the surface.”

The boat was carrying Indonesian workers home from Malaysia. Police suspect the trip was illegal and the workers were undocumented because of the high fares that passengers said they paid.

The boat was about 7.5 kilometers (4.5 miles) from land when it sank.

Speedboats and ferries are a common form of transport in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago. Sinkings are common due to poorly enforced safety regulations.

One of the worst ferry sinkings in recent years occurred off Sulawesi island in 2009, killing more than 330 people.
The death toll from a boat accident near Singapore reaches 54. The victims are mostly Indonesian migrant workers.