Bangladeshi labourer became Cambodia ship’s ‘Captain’!
They left the port with an entire vessel without sufficient knowledge of sea navigation and suffered the consequences with the cost of three lives and the cargo-laden ship!
The captain and the chief engineer, both from Bangladesh, of the sunken Cambodian cargo vessel “Ming Guang” were taken to Tokyo after they were rescued from northern Japan coast where the ship capsized with scrap metals on its way to South Korea.
Mostofa Kamal, the captain, hailing from Bagerhat, was a labourer in Mongla port. His academic education is extended up to grade three in a primary school, Mohammed Nore-Alam, the counsellor at Bangladesh embassy in Tokyo, told The Daily Star over phone.
Meanwhile, the “chief engineer” of the ship, Moniruzzaman, passed intermediate examinations and was also a labourer of the same port as Mostofa. His other details were not asserted immediately, he added.
While they were working at the port, a broker named Saiful Islam managed them jobs in a Chinese company, the official said.
Surprisingly, the Cambodian ship authorities later on appointed them as captain and chief engineer of Ming Guang.
After their rescue, the duo failed to produce any valid documents. “They are now in Japan and we will send them back home soon,” Nore-Alam said.
Japanese Coast Guard yesterday rescued 10 crew members, including two Bangladeshis, of a Cambodian cargo vessel after it sank off the northern Japan coast killing three people. The seven survivors, including the Bangladeshis, were in a stable condition.
They were rescued from the chilly waters of the strait separating Japan's Honshu and northernmost Hokkaido islands. The crew had to abandon ship after the vessel started listing and sank.
