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Despite widespread efforts involving 12 ships, strong currents and bad seas made it impossible for rescuers to find the roughly 185 people still missing off the southern coast of East Java after a boat capsized there.

A ship overburdened with 218 people, mostly Iranians and Afghans, seeking to enter Australia by sea, floundered in rough seas off the coast of Trenggalek, East Java, late on Saturday evening.

“The search was expanded to cover the waters of Tulungagung, Jember and even Banyuwangi. At these points, the personnel are trying to seek and locate the victims,” said Siswanto, the head of the East Java Disaster Mitigation Office (BNPB).

Only 33 of the passengers have been rescued by passing fishing boats. No more bodies or survivors have been found since.

Siswanto said the rough seas and strong currents were believed to have swept away bodies and survivors alike. He said that his office had yet to provide a deadline for the rescue effort to conclude.

“If it is believed that we can still find them, then we will continue searching,” he said.

Search and rescue efforts are usually conducted for one week but can be extended if the conditions warrant it.

Siswanto said the fact that all the victims were non-Indonesians did not affect his work. “This is a humanitarian problem with no bearing on which country they come from,” Siswanto said.

Meanwhile, the Navy’s Eastern Fleet sent the KRI Untung Suropati warship to help search operations.

Siswanto said the survivors would remain sheltered at a health clinic in Prigi, near Trenggalek, where other survivors would be brought if found.

But the Trenggalek District Disaster Mitigation Office chief, Sugeng Widodo, said preparations were being made to move the survivors to an immigration facility in Blitar.

Aside from not being able to speak English, the survivors were still too traumatized to be able to give more information on the ship and its occupants, Siswanto said.

The authorities are speculating that the group arrived through Jakarta or West Java and was planning to seek to enter Australia to seek asylum.

Siswanto said that it was as yet unclear how the boat, which was meant to carry 100 people, capsized.

On Nov. 1, a wooden boat carrying about 68 people from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan sank in bad seas off the southern coast of West Java near Pangandaran, in Ciamis district.

A total of 46 survivors were rescued, and eight bodies were recovered.