Boy rescued from container in Malaysia calls himself Fahim

The boy found in a cargo container in Port Klang of Malaysia on January 17 calls himself Fahim and he could be Bangladeshi or Rohingya.

A video clip of the boy, aged between 11 and 15, being rescued from the empty container went viral and The Daily Star obtained several clips in which the boy calls himself Fahim when Bangladeshi employees at the port asked his name in Bangla.

A source in shipping told our staff correspondent in Chattogram that the port authorities of Malaysia in a message to local agents of the owners of the ship and the container said the boy had no ID on him and he calls himself Fahim.

It said Bangladeshi employees who talked to him suspect that the boy could either be Bangladeshi or Rohingya.

The boy claimed that he was sleeping inside the unlocked container and was unaware when it was locked, the message added.

However, the ship's Bangladeshi agent Continental Traders (BD) Ltd and the agent for the container Reliance Shipping Ltd said they were yet to get the message.

Chattogram Port Authority officials also claimed to have not gotten any official information from Malaysia about the boy.

Meanwhile, quoting a senior police official of South Klang Police District a Malaysian news portal today reported that the boy was not a stowaway and that he had gotten into the container while playing and had been locked in unintentionally.

He has been admitted to the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital and is stable.

Integra, the ship, left Chattogram port with 1,337 containers, including empty ones, on January 12 and reached the outer anchorage of Port Klang on January 16.

But when the vessel was waiting for a berth, crewmembers heard a voice and bangs from a container.

Failing to identify the exact container, the captain informed the Port Klang authority, the ship's local and Bangladeshi agents, and Marine Police.

SM Faisol, assistant manager of the ship's Bangladeshi agent, told The Daily Star that the authorities berthed the vessel on January 17 night on an emergency basis.

After unloading six to seven empty containers, they found the boy, said Faisol, quoting an email from the vessel's captain.