Starving stowaway caught, returned
Around 26 hours into slipping past security and boarding a ship to leave the country, hunger forced a stowaway to give himself up to the ship's crew.
“I did not know the ship's destination but I was badly in need of work,” said the 24-year-old Mohammad Ripon after returning on the same ship, Liberian-flagged MV Hansa Caledonia, which docked in Chittagong port yesterday around 1:00pm.
“I just boarded the vessel using a staircase around 10:30am on February 11 while no one was watching,” said Ripon, who hails from Boro Talesswar village of Moubaria in Barguna.
Claiming to have no academic background, he said he hid himself inside an open container as the Singapore-bound ship left the New Mooring Container Terminal around an hour later.
With no food or water with him, Ripon was soon forced to reveal himself to the crew. The ship's captain informed Singapore Port Authority of the stowaway on arrival there on February 15.
Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) was contacted and Ripon's return was ensured on the ship.
Ripon claimed that he helped the crew in their tasks during his stay on the ship and in return they gave him clothes, food and some gifts.
On how Ripon got access to the restricted jetty area, CPA Director (security) Lt Col Md Kamrul Islam claimed that Ripon was an irregular worker under a private berth operator at the NCT.
Ripon denies this claim. He, however, admitted that it was his second attempt to travel illegally, the first one being in 2010 when he was arrested in the jetty area.
A three-member probe body led by Chittagong Port Dock Master Captain Faridul Alam interrogated Ripon in the afternoon and handed him over to Bandar Police Station, where a case was lodged in this connection.
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