Most of the Indians caught up in Yemen fighting are nurses
Date
3/31/2015 6:17:54 AM
(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is mounting an attempt to airlift nationals from the Yemeni city of Sanaa.
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Thiruvananthapuram: More than half of the 4000 Indian nationals caught up in the conflict in Yemen are nurses the foreign ministry said on Monday the latest security scare for medical staff working in the Middle East after dozens were kidnapped in Iraq last year.
The nurses mostly from Kerala are often hired on harsh terms with middlemen taking up-front fees and hospitals are reluctant to let them go because they would have to close without foreign staff.
Sajeesh Mathew’s wife 29-year-old nurse Asha has worked for three years at the Al-Naqib Hospital in the port city of Aden scene of heavy fighting on Monday. “The areas around the hospital are now under the control of the Houthi rebels” said Mathew whose wife is one of 35 Indian nurses at the hospital. The city’s port is destroyed and the road to Sanaa is unsafe he added.
India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is mounting an attempt to airlift nationals from the Yemeni city of Sanaa.
Eighty Indians were flown out on Sunday to Djibouti on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Aden.
Two Air India aircraft were on standby in Muscat Oman but had not been granted permission to fly to Sanaa to evacuate Indian nationals MEA spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told reporters on Monday.
He said 400 Indians were being evacuated by sea from Aden and would reach Djibouti on Tuesday. They will be flown home by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
New Delhi has issued a series of warnings this year to Indian nationals to leave Yemen.
Our Kerala correspondent adds: Three Keralites from war-torn Yemen returned home on Monday. The three who were working at the Yemen capital of Sanaa came on their own. While Ruben Jacob Chandy arrived at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport Lijo George and Jacob Kora reached in Cochin.
Lijo from Erattupetta and Jacob from Kanjirapplly were waiting at the airport for three days for a flight to leave the conflict zone. The two have no idea where others have gone. Jacob said that they could return safely because of help from the Indian embassy.
He told the Khaleej Times that the situation in Yemen was grave. “Though we did not face much problem the Indians living in interior areas of the country were facing difficulties in getting food water and other essentials” he said adding that it was better for Indians to leave as early as possible.
Most of the Indians want to return but they were facing numerous difficulties. A major problem faced by them is the refusal by their employers to return their passports.
This has affected the nurses most. Most hospitals do not want to relieve them as more than 90 per cent of the nurses are Indian expats mostly Keralites.
With inputs from Reuters
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