Its Malaysian chapter secretary, A Balasubramaniam, said it should also ensure that the deceased and survivors were given appropriate social protection as enshrined in the Maritime Labour Convention and other international instruments.

“They should launch an inquiry as to whether equipment reliability, ship inspection standards and safety protocols were compromised, leading to the accident that took two lives,” he said in a statement.

The Marine Department said the two deaths involved a Malaysian and another individual who had yet to be identified.

Yesterday, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre said it received a call at 6.45am from a Sapura Construction ship which received a distress signal from the Dayang Topaz about 7.7 nautical miles from Kuala Baram.

Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency director-general Mohd Zubil Mat Som said the Sapura Construction ship was mobilised to identify the location of the sinking vessel, with 62 crew members still onboard and 125 having abandoned ship.

The crew members of the ship, owned by DESB Marine Services Sdn Bhd, were rescued.

Preliminary investigations showed that one of the Dayang Topaz’s anchors was cut off because of bad weather conditions, causing the ship to lose control and crash into the Baram B oil platform.

The damage caused by the collision has yet to be determined but no marine pollution was detected and the ship was brought to the nearest shipyard for inspection.