The journey felt like forever

After loading the container for the whole night, Babul felt so drained he could not keep his eyes open and fell asleep inside it. When he woke up, he found the container locked from the outside and moving. He was struck by fear.

He started shouting, but nobody heard it. He banged on the wall of the container, but nobody felt it.

"I thought I was going to die," said 30-year-old Babul Tripura. "The faces of my three sons cropped up in my mind."

Only five days back, he took the job of loading containers at a private inland container depot (ICD) named KDS Logistics Ltd at Bhatiary in Sitakunda. A jhum farmer from Khagrachhari, he came there to make some extra money.

On Sunday, he started a 12-hour shift till 6:00am yesterday with five others. Out of fatigue, he fell asleep inside the container loaded with ready-made garments. It was headed for the UK through Colombo Port.

After the loading, a trailer was taking it to Chittagong Port from the dock in Sitakunda. As the vehicle was shaking, he woke up.

"It was very hot inside. I felt suffocated," Babul said. "I knew once the container gets into the ship, there is no way I can survive."

Babul had finished his work around 5:30am, and the trailer started off at 6:00am.

One hour and a half passed, and nobody heard his cry. He kept kicking, slapping, banging on the container door. "The journey felt like forever," he said.

When the trailer stopped at gate no. 4 of Chittagong Port, he started banging its door again. "Someone heard me finally," he said, "and opened the door."

Babul was immediately taken to Chittagong Port Hospital where he was treated for dehydration. This correspondent caught up with him there before he was released around 1:00pm.

Babul said he was feeling alright.

Export goods including garment products from different parts of the country are usually sent to the 16 inland container depots or ICDs for loading into containers. Then the containers are locked in presence of officials of Chittagong Customs House and the respective ICD before those are sent to the port for shipment.

'SERIOUS NEGLIGENCE'

Talking about the incident, Chittagong Port Authority Director (Security) Lt Col Abdul Gaffar said there was serious negligence of duty on the part of customs and ICD employees; they were supposed to check the container before sealing it.

If the container entered the port jetty and was loaded to the vessel, the man might meet a tragedy, he told The Daily Star.

Milon Tripura, a staff of the depot who was present during the sealing of the container, said there was no customs official there while a deskman locked the container.

Calling it a "mere accident", Mijanur Rahman, deputy general manager of the depot, said, "Our employee who locked it should have been more careful."

Assistant Commissioner Kefayet Ullah Mazumder of Chittagong Customs House said a revenue officer and two assistant revenue officers (AROs) were deployed to oversee the loading activities at one depot, and during the night shift, only one ARO could be deployed due to a manpower shortage in the Customs House.

"It is not possible for an ARO to be present to oversee the locking of 200 to 300 containers," he said.

PREVIOUS INCIDENTS

In October last year, a Bangladeshi man was found alive in an empty container in India. He was said to have survived 10 days inside it without water and food.

In January the same year, a 28-year-old man was found hanging inside a container at a depot in Chittagong city. Police initially called it a suicide.

In March 2015, a truck helper survived 40 hours inside a container. He was rescued at Mongla Port.

In April 2011, a port worker was found dead and another alive in a container in Singapore.