Boy ends up in another country after playing in shipping container

Jun 11, 2023

He screamed for help after he realized he was locked inside — but no one heard him. Six days later, he was in Malaysia

A teen who was playing hide and seek inside a shipping container in Chittagong, Bangladesh, ended up far from home after falling asleep.

Officials said he was in the container for six days before arriving in Port Klang, Malaysia, on Jan. 17 — almost 4,000 kilometres away by car, Malaysian news agency Bernama reported.

A video circulating online appears to show the teen, identified as Fahim, being discovered. He seems to be confused and disoriented as he exits the container. A crowd of workers and people at the scene had their phones out and were taking videos. Fahim is eventually put on a stretcher and is seen getting medical care.

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15 year old boy from Bangladesh was apparently playing hide and seek with his friends, he decided to hide in a shipping container, he fell asleep and was found 6 days later in Malaysia. pic.twitter.com/dVJSuEWNDn

The container ship departed on Jan. 11 after 15-year-old Fahim was locked inside, Times of India reported. He was yelling for help, but his screams went unnoticed, the newspaper said.

Fahim was the only child found in the container, according to Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. There were no signs of human trafficking after an investigation, he told reporters on Jan. 20.

"The boy was just believed to have entered the container, fell asleep and found himself here," he said.

"The authorities are in the process of repatriating him through the legal channel. That's it."

There was an initial struggle to understand what had occurred because Fahim did not speak the language, according to Times of India.

People online were stunned by the incident, with some users commenting about how horrible the experience must have been for the teen.

"Nightmare fuel," one person said in a comment thread on Reddit where the video was posted.

"Pitch black, impossible to open from the inside, and worse of all, THEY ARE DESIGNED TO SINK if they fall overboard so they don't create a hazzard (sic) to ships!!" wrote another.

Another person pointed out that there had been another case involving a shipping container in Malaysia that had a more tragic outcome.

According to the Times of India, the "decomposed body of a young man from a container shipped to Malaysia's Penang port from Chittagong" was recovered by police last October.

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