PETALING JAYA: A boy playing in the docks of Chittagong climbed into a container, fell asleep and got locked in. The container was then hoisted onto a ship which sailed for five days from Bangladesh to Klang.
Hungry, dehydrated and feverish, the boy named Fahim was found inside the container when it was unloaded after the ship arrived in Westport on Jan 17.
The boy was not a victim of human trafficking, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
“We are not looking at the human trafficking aspect anymore because investigations found that he had entered the container and fallen asleep before it left for Malaysia,” Saifuddin told a press conference in Johor Baru yesterday.
Earlier in the day, South Klang OCPD Asst Comm Cha Hoong Fong said a port worker involved in shipping operations found the boy inside the container.
The 43-year-old man told police on Wednesday that he had found the boy when inspecting the container while overseeing the ship’s entry into Westport.
The container had arrived onboard the vessel MV Integra, which had left Chittagong on Jan 12 and arrived at Westport on Jan 17.
After five days without food and water, the boy was feverish and weak. He later received treatment at Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital.
According to ACP Cha, the boy said he had entered the container while playing with some friends and ended up getting locked inside.
“There was no foul play in the incident,’’ said ACP Cha.
He added that the case had been referred to the Immigration Department for the boy’s documents to be processed and for him to be sent home in the ship he arrived in.
However, it was still a mystery how the boy managed to survive without any water for five days inside the container.
A video of the boy coming out of the container had gone viral on social media since Thursday.