Nurses return to emotional reunion

The 46 Indian nurses stranded in the conflict zones of Iraq returned home on a special Air India aircraft at the Cochin International Airport here on Saturday. 

The aircraft – AI 160 – that left Erbil International Airport in Iraq in the early hours of Saturday with 183 passengers on board arrived at 11:57 am after a stop-over in Mumbai for refuelling.

Families of the nurses – 45 of them from Kerala and one from Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu – welcomed them in an emotional reception even as the nurses narrated to the media the month-long trauma of life in the conflict zone. 

The nurses were accompanied by senior government officials in the flight to Kochi. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, ministers and MPs were at the airport to receive the nurses who were stuck in a state-run hospital in Tikrit taken over by ISIS militants.

Speaking with reporters, Chandy thanked the Centre and the Ministry of External Affairs for efforts taken to secure the nurses’ release. The nurses said the militants never misbehaved and had even assured that they would help them reach home.

Some of them said the rescue plan after weeks of uncertainty came in as a “sudden move”. 
“We had lost hope of returning home but the militants treated us well. They also told us not to be worried and we would be in India soon,” Sumi Jose, a nurse from Kothamangalam in the Ernakulam district of Kerala, told Deccan Herald.

The nurses took seven hours to reach Mosul from Tikrit by road on Thursday. The group was on Friday handed over to officials. 

Most of them said salaries were due from the hospital for two to six months and were preparing for an uncertain future at home even as nurses’ associations started moves to convince the state government into accommodating them in government hospitals. 

P Sudeep, chief executive officer of NORKA-ROOTS, the field agency of Non Resident Keralite Affairs Department, said travel arrangements were made to transfer all the nurses to their homes.

The airport was abuzz with friends and relatives of the nurses arriving since the early hours of Saturday. 

There was also some political point-scoring with Youth Congress and BJP activists cheering Chandy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi respectively for securing the nurses’ release. 

After arriving at Kochi, the aircraft left for Hyderabad where other Indians leaving battle zones in Iraq disembarked, NORKA sources told Deccan Herald.