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. Also read:Probe body formed on ship sinking in Kolkata port 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.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Saturday said 28 crew members of Bangladeshi ship "Banglar Samriddhi" will soon return home as they have safely crossed the border leaving war-ravaged Ukraine.  “They’ll soon return to Bangladesh,” he told reporters at a programme held in the Jatiya Press Club. Bangladesh Ambassador to Poland Sultana Laila Hossain said the 28 crew members were on the way to Romania from Moldova and scheduled to reach there within few hours. The government has made necessary arrangements for their return as their relatives are eagerly waiting to get reunited at home.  Earlier, the crew had been taken to a relatively safe place from the ship that came under attack leaving its third engineer dead on Wednesday. The Foreign Minister, however, could not tell about the progress over bringing back the body of Engineer Hadisur Rahman who was killed during a rocket attack on the ship. Expressing deep condolences to the near and dear ones of deceased Hadisur Rahman, the Russian Embassy in Dhaka on Thursday said the Russian side "bends every effort" to ensure safe departure of the Bangladeshi ship from the port. The Command of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, relying on the objective monitoring data, has repeatedly stated that, during the retreat, the Ukrainian nationalists open indiscriminate fire and deliberately capture hostages, use them as a “human shield”, resorting to the well-known terrorists’ tactic, said the Embassy. The BSC ship was positioned in the inner anchorage of Olvia port (Ukraine), when Hadisur was killed due to a missile attack. Also read: Trying to shift stranded sailors from Ukraine to Romania, says Foreign Secy