Five Bangladeshi nationals, who were arrested by Ukrainian officials for not having valid passports and visas, are now confined in a detention centre in Ukraine.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen gave the information on Sunday following media reports on allegations of torture on many people of different countries, including the five Bangladeshis, in Ukraine.
The reports claimed that many people were being held hostage in Zhuravychi, a border city in Ukraine that is just 130km away from the Ukraine-Belarus border.
Momen said, “We are aware of the reports regarding the five Bangladeshis and we came to know that they are confined in a detention centre in Ukraine as they do not have proper documents.”
“They went to Russia to watch a football match. When they entered Ukraine, they could not show proper documents,” the minister added.
The minister informed that the government has instructed officials concerned to collect and scrutinise information about them.
The process to bring them back home would start after verifying information, he added.
He said, “Around 100 Bangladeshis are in Ukraine and over 600 left from there to Poland and other countries.”
Momen informed that the 28 mariners of the Banglar Samriddhi already reached Romania from Ukraine.
“Arrangements are being made to bring back the mariners to Bangladesh,” he said at a media briefing at state guesthouse Padma.
The minister said the body of engineer Md Hadisur Rahman, who was killed in a rocket attack on the ship stranded at a Ukrainian port, has been preserved in Ukraine.
“Efforts are underway to bring back the body home,” he said.
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