Kerala to pull out all stops to bring back nurses

The Kerala government will take all necessary steps to bring back native nurses serving in the strife-torn regions of Iraq, a senior official in the Non Resident Keralites Affairs (Norka) department said on Wednesday. 

P Sudeep, CEO and director of Norka-Roots, the department’s field agency, said efforts were on to address concerns of the nurses who also await pending salaries before deciding on a possible return.Some nurses, working in hospitals in Tikrit and the Diyala province, said they were not in a financial position to fly out when salaries also were due. 

“We have assured them that the government would consider all measures, including meeting their travel expenses,” Sudeep told Deccan Herald. 

He said the immediate priority was to ensure safe passage to the airport in Baghdad.Sudeep said the abduction of 40 Indian workers from Mosul had triggered “some panic” among the nurses though they said they were safe in the hospitals.

Jasminsha, president of the Kerala-based United Nurses Association, said the nurses were in touch with their families and many wanted to return. He, however, said the official figure of 46 nurses stranded in Tikrit could be lower than the actual number.