Libyan gave shelter to stranded Keralites

Kochi/New Delhi: When the returnees landed at the Nedumbassery airport, a large number of relatives had gathered there.

They, including six children, came back via Istanbul and Dubai after a wait of 47 days. Most of those who returned are nurses working at the Savio Hospital in Tripoli. In the shell attack on the hospital, one Malayali nurse and her child were killed. A total of 11 people returned to their native places in Tamil Nadu.

The returnees said that the hospital authorities did not care for the safety of the staff.

Abraham Samuel from Kozhenchery, who was among the 29 Indians rescued from the conflict zones in Libya, said that the Indian embassy did not do things properly.  If it had constructively intervened, their return would have happened much early. He said that they took tickets on their own for returning to Kochi.

Joseph Chacko from Perumpaikadu, Kottayam, said that he and a few others escaped from the place with the help of a Libyan national who was working with them. He took them to another safe place in Libya and lodged them in a cottage for a month.  Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had tried to intervene but the response from the Indian embassy was not that encouraging, he said.

NORKA opened a special help desk at the airport to help the returnees reach their destinations. All those above the age of 10 were given Rs 2,000 apart from vehicle facility to reach home. They said that the warring tribal factions in Libya do not give much hope for their return to the workplace in the near future.

Mr Chandy said in Kochi that the allegations that the state government didn’t do anything to help the nurses stranded in Libya were baseless. “We’ve been coordinating with the Indian embassy and other authorities to safely bring them back. The government will bear the complete expense for their travel, including the air fare. However, due to some technical issues in currency exchange, we couldn’t pay the airfare before their journey,” he said at a press conference.

“They have agreed to buy the ticket on their own for which the government will reimburse it soon. When they reached Nedum-bassery, each person was given Rs 2,000 as an initial assistance and vehicles were also arranged to take them to their native place. We were monitoring the situation when they started from their workplaces as journey up to Tripoli is very dangerous.”

“The government was ready to bring them back when the first group of persons returned. But they were not ready to return citing financial problems,” he said.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said in Kochi that Mr Modi and Ms Sushma Swaraj had brought back the nurses stranded in Libya.  Mr Chandy had no role in this. The only contribution of Mr Chandy was receiving the nurses at the airport after they landed safely in Kerala,” he said.

The political fight erupted a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government had  evacuated the families from Libya and that the Centre was committed to work for the welfare of Indians living abroad.  Mr Modi is already under mounting attack from the Opposition parties for his controversial comment in an election rally comparing Kerala and Somalia while talking about the infant mortality rate among tribals in the state.