Staff Correspondent
The seamen stranded offshore Benin started coming to mainland of the West African country, said a foreign ministry official yesterday.
“One ship was brought to the shore yesterday but it could not be known how many seamen were on it,” said Saida Muna Tasneem, director general of the external publicity wing of the foreign affairs ministry.
According to earlier information, there were 27 seamen on board the eight ships. Another ship was traced having two more seamen aboard bringing the total to 29, she said.
These ships are around ten miles off the port of Cotonou, seamen said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Shipping agreed to bear the airfare of the seamen for their repatriation except for three. Those three were sent by the shipping agent KSF which agreed to pay for them, she said.
The foreign ministry from Dhaka is trying to buy e-tickets for them, Muna noted.
The development followed negotiations of Bangladesh's chargé d'affaires in Morocco, Lutfar Rahman, with the Benin foreign ministry and the port authorities. He arrived at Benin on April 28…
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