1.1348859-3369045194
A nurse tends to the injuries of an Iraqi man, at a hospital in the northern city of Kirkuk on June 9, 2014, after a roadside bomb followed by a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged truck at a police checkpoint in northern Iraq killing 21 people. Image Credit: AFP

Thiruvananthapuram: Amidst rising concern among families of Keralites stranded in different parts of strife-torn Iraq, the Non-resident Keralites Affairs (Norka) department has announced that it would bear the travel expenses of Keralite nurses stranded in Iraq. Norka CEO P. Sudeesh said the department was willing to pay the travel expenses of nurses back home if they desired. He said several nurses had expressed desire to get back home and that the key hurdle for them was to reach Baghdad.

State government officials are in touch with nurses from Kerala stranded in Iraq on a daily basis, and the latest information is that all of them are safe. Norka has also started a helpline for family members of those caught up in Iraq, to get details.

The two helpline numbers are 00914712333339 and 18004253939. Some reports indicate that some Keralite nurses in Tikrit are living under stressful conditions in hospitals after the owners abandoned operations in the hospital buildings. The nurses are pinning their hopes on the Red Cross and the Indian diplomatic mission officials to help them get to a safer location.

Minister for Non-resident Keralites Affairs, K.C. Joseph had on Tuesday said it would be difficult to evacuate stranded Keralites from Iraq immediately. Nurses from Kerala work across the Gulf countries and many of them who had left Libya when that country went through strife during the overthrow of the Gadaffi regime, have now returned. Some of them have returned to Libya without their spouses and children because they fear the situation is still not stable.