Last batch of seamen back from Benin
The last batch of Bangladeshi seamen, who were stranded in ships offshore Benin, finally returned home yesterday.
"The 21 seamen landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday around 8:00pm by a flight of Emirates Airlines,” an official of welfare desk, the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, said last night.
With their return, the repatriation of the marooned seamen concluded.
As of 10:00pm last night, the immigration police was interrogating the seamen, airport sources said.
In last December and January this year, some 60 seamen went to Benin with jobs in a Greece-based shipping company, Golden Shipping SA. But, the company did not pay them salaries.
After repeated requests, the company gave return tickets to some 30 of the seamen, leaving 28 others marooned in ships off the coast.
Bangladesh's Chargé d' Affaires in Morocco Lutfar Rahman held a robust negotiation with the Benin authorities as to the return of all the stranded seamen.
The Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment met the expenses of the seamen's stay in a Benin hotel and the Department of Shipping is paying for their return home.
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