Minister for Non-Resident Keralites’ Affairs K.C. Joseph has said that Keralites in Iraq, which has witnessed a spate of internal strife, are safe.
Talking to presspersons here on Saturday, Mr. Joseph said the NoRKA-Roots had opened a 24x7 help desk for the coordination of assistance to the stranded persons and their relatives back home.
Majority of Keralites who had contacted the Indian embassy were nurses stationed in the war-torn Tikrit. They were staying in their hospital hostels.
They were facing problems in getting to the airport from their workplaces as fierce fighting was going on. However, there were no reports of any attack on hospitals so far, he said.
Neither the Indian embassy in Baghdad nor the State government had a clear picture on the total number of people stranded there.