A group representing sailors of seafaring merchant ships has accused the state-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) of being "negligent" over its decision to send MV Banglar Samriddhi to Ukraine amid the ongoing military conflict with Russia.
The Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers' Association (BMMOA) also called for the formation of a high-level probe panel to look into the matter during a press conference at its office on Chattogram's Strand Road on Friday, reports bdnews24.com.
"Based on the information we have received so far, the ship could have avoided going to Ukraine. It seems that BSC was negligent here," said Shakawat Hossain, general secretary of BMMOA.
On Feb 21, Banglar Samriddhi with its 29 crew members set off from a port in Turkey and arrived in Ukraine’s Olvia. It was at the port’s outer anchorage on Feb 22 and was moved to the inner anchorage the following day.
The ship was supposed to take cement clay on board before travelling to Italy’s Ravenna on Feb 24, but Russia launched the assault before the vessel was scheduled to depart.
The vessel's bridge was later hit by a shell on Wednesday evening Bangladesh time, killing Hadisur Rahman, the third engineer on the ship.
Concerns about the safety of the stranded crew members only grew after Omar Faruk Tuhin, the ship's chief engineer, made an impassioned plea for help.
The BMMOA blamed the "mismanagement" of the BSC for putting the mariners in harm's way.
"We are having to face this death and the misery of the sailors due to the overall mismanagement of BSC. A valuable property of the state has also been damaged. Who will take responsibility for it?” said Shakawat.
In a written statement read out by Shakhawat, the organisation also raised various questions about the decision to send the ship to a 'war zone'.
"Where the Joint War Committee declared the area a war zone on Feb 15, why did the ship deliberately enter the area on Feb 22?
"According to the charter party rules, a shipping company can impose a ban on ships going to war-stricken and piracy-prone areas for the safety of its ships. But in this case, the owner BSC allowed the ship to go to a war-torn area.”
Although BSC owns Banglar Samriddhi, the vessel has been chartered by Danish company Delta Corporation. The ship set sail from Mumbai and reached the Ukrainian port via Turkey.
As the plight of the stranded Bangladeshi sailors gained traction in the media, the BSC claimed the charterers had decided to send the ship to Ukraine and so it was bound to follow their wishes.
“BSC says they allowed the ship to go because of the terms of the contract. Another information we came to know about is that there was another ship of BSC under the same charter. The charterers wanted to take it to Ukraine after the start of the war but the BSC said no on Feb 26," said Sakawat.
"That means the BSC has the right to refuse to send its ships to Ukraine. But they did not exercise that right [for Banglar Samriddhi] and that is why this situation has arisen. The conditions they are talking about are not correct.”
The BMMOA general secretary also pointed out that Article B of the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) War Risks Clause for Time Chartering 2013 states that the owner or master is not obliged to go to a place where there is a risk of war.
"We want a high-level inquiry committee to be formed. Only then we will find out how the BSC operated the ship and for what reason it was sent there.”
The BMMOA also criticised the lack of immediate measures to evacuate the sailors from the danger zone.
The 28 seafarers eventually moved to safety with the body of their dead colleague on Thursday.
The authorities declared abandoned the Bangladeshi ship, as the sailors started moving to nearby bunkers on Thursday for evacuation to Poland.
The sailors, including two female cadets, left the ship in tugboat about 7:30pm Bangladesh standard time, said Pijush Dutta, executive director of BSC.
The BMMOA demanded that Hadisur Rahman be declared a 'national hero' and called for arrangements to be made for his body to be brought back to the country. It also asked for the 28 surviving sailors to be immediately repatriated and given state honours for protecting the vessel from rocket strikes.