Bangladesh teen repatriated after reaching Malaysia in shipping container dies by drowning

A teenager in Bangladesh who was found in a shipping container in Malaysia and repatriated back to Dhaka three months back ago died after drowning in a pond, his family said.

The 14-year-old boy Ratul Islam Fahim drowned to death while he was bathing alone in a pond in southern Bangladesh’s Monoharganj in Chittagong, his father Faruq Miah said, reported The Daily Star.

Ratul, who was mentally disabled, drowned around 2.30pm on Saturday, his father said.

Local union council’s chair Ashikur Rahman Hiron added that this likely happened as Ratul did not know how to swim.

This comes around three months after Ratul was found in a shipping container in a miraculous rescue after he was reported missing in mid-November last year. He had accidentally landed in the container while playing hide and seek.

He was found inside MV Integra at Port Klang in Malaysia on 17 January this year.

The shipping vessel had reached the Malaysian port on 12 January after leaving Bangladesh.

Ratul was tracked down after sailors around the shipping container reported hearing voices from inside it on 16 January and alerted the port authority.

Officials then brought the container to the jetty on 17 January and opened it to see Ratul inside.

The teenager was found to be in a weak condition and with a fever when the ship was docked and the container was opened, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had said.

A reddit video had captured Ratul looking confused when he was rescued after going without food and water for six days.

Home minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin ruled out human trafficking in the case and said that the boy had accidentally landed in the container at a ship docked in Bangladesh.

He was then repatriated to Dhaka on 21 February from Kuala Lumpur International airport.