IANS/Thiruvananthapuram
Less than four weeks after Sunni insurgents freed them in Iraq, Indian nurses who returned home after days of terror are already looking for new jobs in the Gulf.
But none of the 46 women, including one from Tamil Nadu, wants to return to Iraq, a country now caught up in a mindless civil war that shows no signs of ending soon.
J Merena, who hails from Kottayam, is still busy going to various churches because she feels her safe return was made possible only by god.
“My husband works in Qatar and our two small children study here. After this Iraqi ordeal, we have decided to live together,” Merena said.
“So I am applying for a job in Qatar. If I go there with our children, we can live as a family.”
Merena will soon join a course to write the qualifying examination for a nurse’s job in Qatar.
Another nurse, Renu Balakrishnan, says the dreams she had when she took up work in Iraq remains unfulfilled - the desire to earn a lot more than what a nurse can get in India.
She has always wanted to own a home in Kerala, wanted to help her eldest sister get married and provide a good life for a younger sister who is mentally challenged.
“If it was not for god, I doubt if I could have come back from Iraq,” said the teary eyed Balakrishnan. “I have no choice. I need to get another job in the Middle East.”
It was on July 5 that the 46 nurses returned after a harrowing two weeks in Tikrit where Sunni insurgents who overran much of Iraq first confined them to a hospital and then forced them to go to Mosul.
That was when the nurses’ Middle East dreams came crashing down.
With the Indian and Kerala governments doing all they could to ensure their freedom and safe return, their tragedy caught widespread attention in the country.
Qatar-based Indian businessman, C K Menon, gave away Rs300,000 to the nurses since all of them had to forego a few months’ salary in view of their hurried exit out of Iraq.
Some of the nurses had spent close to Rs200,000 to get work in Iraq. While some had spent a year there, many others reached there in February. Within months, they were caught in the Iraq crisis.
“Since we needed to repay loans we had taken, the money provided by Menon was a great help,” said Sumi Jose, a nurse from Kothamangalam.
Businessman Atlas Ramachandran, who runs a string of hospitals and jewellery shops in the Middle East, has promised jobs to all the nurses on a salary of Omani riyal 250.
Moved by their plight, the Dubai-based Aster DM Healthcare gave Rs25,000 to each nurse and offered jobs at its hospitals in India and abroad, subject to eligibility.
Remya Jose, who hails from Kannur, said that a nurse in the private sector in the Middle East can earn the equivalent of Rs38,000-50,000. The salaries range between Rs60,000 and Rs85,000 in the government sector.
“Many of us are going to write the qualifying examination which is a pre-requisite for a nurse’s job in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE,” said Jose.
The Kerala government has been reportedly told by the Iraq government that the two months salary the nurses lost in Iraq would be given to them.
“Every penny counts... We worked hard in Iraq. Like every human being, we too have a dream. We are still pursuing the dream,” said Merena.
Meanwhile, in a near replay of the incidents in Iraq, large numbers of Indian nurses are caught in spiralling violence in Libya, where rival militant groups seek to control capital Tripoli’s international airport, and have approached the Indian mission for help and even evacuation.
Over the last two weeks, the north African country has plunged into chaos following deadly clashes between government forces and Islamist militants in Tripoli and Benghazi where more than 150 people, most of them civilians, have been killed.
Taking note of the fighting, Indian Ambassador in Libya, Azar A H Khan, met the nurses in Tripoli hospitals and assured them of their safety.
“Everybody is safe here. We are in constant touch with the nurses,” Khan said by phone from Tripoli.
The ambassador, however, said only some Indian nationals, mostly nurses, have approached the embassy for help in leaving the country.
“It is only in some places around the airport where fighting is raging... rest of the places are fine,” he said.
The embassy has been arranging for passports and other travel documents for all those wishing to exit Libya by road.
Also, some 350 nurses are located in Benghazi, another restive city in eastern Libya, but only a few have wished to leave their place.
