'Punjabi youths stranded in Iraq to return on Saturday'

All seven Punjabi youths who had been stranded in Erbil in Iraq for the last 8 months on being duped by a travel agent will return to their homeland on July 27.

Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today (Monday) said she had been informed by the Indian Consul General in Erbil that exit stamps were affixed on the passports of the stranded youths yesterday (Sunday).

“Now only a few court formalities are left which are expected to be undertaken today (Monday) itself to facilitate the return of the youth,” Kaur said on Monday.

Earlier the Youth Akali Dal (YAD) had pledged to provide return tickets to the youths following an appeal by SAD general secretary and former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia. The Union minister disclosed that she had been apprised that the required tickets had been purchased and that they had been sent. “The youth will board a flight for Delhi on July 26 and reach early morning on July 27.”

Expressing gratitude to external affairs minister Dr Jaishankar for the affirmative action taken by him to bring the stranded youth back, Harsimrat Badal said the Erbil Consul General had extended much needed legal and financial aid to the youth to enable them to return to their homeland.

She said the seven youths from Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts had been duped by a travel agent who had promised them jobs in Iraq. The agent had taken money to provide the necessary work papers but did not provide any documents to them to make them eligible to work in Iraq.