Fifteen crew members of a ship have been stranded in Kolkata for five weeks as their vessel capsized at a Kolkata port while loading goods.
On March 24, the Bangladesh-flagged ‘MV Marine Trust-1’ sank at Netaji Subhash Chandra Dock in Kolkata.
Fifteen Bangladeshi crew members, including Mizanur Rahman of Kushtia Sadar upazila, narrowly escaped the accident. Since then, they have been confined to Marine Club Hotel (C-Man Hostel) adjacent to the port in Kolkata.
On Wednesday night, a three-minute video message was uploaded on social media by the stranded crew pleading for help.
In the video message, the crew expressed their misery and sought immediate intervention of the President, Prime Minister and other authorities concerned to bring them back to Bangladesh.
Fahim Faisal, chief engineer of the ship, said in the video that the ship left Chittagong port on March 20 and they reached Kolkata on March 23.
He said neither the Bangladesh government nor the Indian authorities were taking any initiative to repatriate them.
The hostel has also threatened to stop food supplies at any time, said Faisal.
“We are in danger. Anything can happen at any time. We are helpless.”
The owner of the ship has assured to bring the crews back to the country but has been out of touch for several days.
UNB contacted one of the stranded crew, Kushtia’s Mizanur Rahman, through WhatsApp on Friday afternoon.
Mizanur said that 15 crew members are staying in 7 rooms in the hotel and are not even allowed to go out. They have run out of money.
Besides, agent of PNN Shipping confiscated their passports. Their belongings, including their education certificates, are in the capsized ship.
He further said the owners of the ship MV Marine Trust-01 contacted them on Thursday following the video message and assured them to bring them back to the country soon.
At the same time, the Bangladeshi embassy authorities in Kolkata also contacted them over the phone assuring them to send them back to the country very soon.
He also mentioned that the embassy authorities wanted to hold a meeting with them in a day or two. The embassy authorities also sent them an email in this regard.
Mizanur said that the crews who are with him here are residents of different districts of the country. They all want to celebrate Eid with their families.
Source: United News of Bangladesh