Nearly 144 million Indonesians embark on the Eid ‘mudik’ journey, with warships deployed to aid one of the world’s largest annual human migrations.

JAKARTA: Tens of millions of Indonesians are travelling across the archipelago for the annual Eid holiday exodus.

This mass movement, known locally as “mudik”, sees people return to their hometowns by motorcycle, car, plane, and boat to celebrate the end of Ramadan with family.

Nearly 144 million people are expected to participate this year, according to senior infrastructure minister Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono.

The projection is slightly lower than last year’s figure of more than 154 million travellers.

The Indonesian navy has deployed two warships to help transport holiday-goers as part of the annual tradition.

One warship carried passengers from Jakarta to the Javan cities of Semarang and Surabaya, while another travelled to the Bangka Belitung islands.

“Hopefully next year we can add more routes,” Navy chief of staff Muhammad Ali said in a statement.

More than 1,400 people signed up for the free warship service this year.

The government has declared seven days of public holidays and urged travellers to stagger their journeys.

It is also allowing civil servants to work remotely for five days to ease traffic congestion.

On the island of Bali, Eid coincides with the Hindu Day of Silence.

This means locals and tourists will stay at home for 24 hours on Thursday, refraining from work, travel, or electricity use.

Long queues have formed at Bali’s Gilimanuk port, forcing travellers to wait for hours to cross to Java.

Authorities have deployed more ferries and sped up procedures to ease the congestion.

 The Sun Malaysia