Aid ship goes to Chittagong
BAY OF BENGAL: The Rohingya aid ship will be going to Chittagong after all, despite earlier plans for it to unload its cargo near Cox’s Bazar.
Aid mission organiser co-chief Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim said he was “shocked” by the sudden change in plans from the Bangladesh government.
“They asked us to (dis) embark here and they said we’re going to anchor here, send us a barge, discharge all our aid, and all of us would get the approval from their Immigration.
“Suddenly, they said no, this is the latest!” he told reporters onboard the Nautical Aliya yesterday.
Azeez, however thanked the Bangladesh government for allowing the ship, which is carrying some 2,100 tonnes of aid cargo for Rohingya refugees, to dock there.
It was originally allowed to go to Chittagong after initial plans to go to Teknaf were denied.
Earlier at about 10am yesterday, the vessel was directed to anchor about 6km from Cox’s Bazar shore before it was visited by a navy ship captain there.
Azeez said some of the organisers went over to the navy ship to confer on the matter.
However, a call from Dhaka to the navy ship informed them of the change, prompting the switch to Chittagong.
This was despite Azeez’s earlier call from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that Chittagong port was too crowded.
“This is not a normal mission ... this is not business as usual,” Azeez lamented when asked why Bangladesh changed the plans.
However, he said negotiations between the two countries were “healthy”. Although Chittagong port was busy, he said the ship would get a “special route” to dock there.
Azeez said that the waters in the Cox’s Bazar area were rough.
“God willing,” he said, when asked if the mission would still end on Feb 18.
It is not known whether all of the ship’s volunteers would have the necessary visa approvals to get off in Bangladesh and to visit the Rohingya camps there.