The voice coming through the phone line is tense and most questions are answered with a terse “no idea”.
Anu Joseph, 28, a staff nurse working in Baghdad’s Al Kadhmiya Hospital, speaking to The Hindu on the phone said: “Nobody is telling us anything. We have no access to correct and updated news. I and the other 30 Indian nurses with me here just want to come home. But we have no idea how and when that is going to happen.”
Anu added that their only source of information was media reports which are conveyed to them via relatives and family who call them.
The scenario is no better for the relatives and families of these nurses back in India. George Paul from Faridabad, whose sister is stranded in Baghdad’s Al Karkh Hospital with nine other Indian nurses, asked: “Can you tell me if the Indian government is doing anything to help us.”
He said, according to his sister, Indian nurses in Iraq have been told not to go out alone and stay indoors.
The family has maintained that all the information that they are getting is from the media and that nobody from the Indian government has either spoken or written to them reassuring them about the safety of their near and dear ones.
“We know from media reports that Indians are in danger because Al-Qaida’s offshoot ISIS is advancing across Iraq. Other than that we have no specific information,” said Mr. Paul.
