Indian nurses stranded in Iraq offered jobs in UAE

The 46 nurses returned home on Saturday, but said they would be 'very happy' to work in Dubai after a local entrepreneur BR Shetty said he would employ all of them.

Dr B R Shetty, chief executive and managing director of the Abu Dhabi-based NMC healthcare group, says he was moved by the plight of the nurses stranded in Iraq. Delores Johnson / The National

DUBAI // More than 40 Indian nurses who were trapped in Iraq for a month have been offered jobs in the UAE as well as cash to help pay their debts by two businessmen.

The 46 nurses were stranded in Tikrit, 140km north-west of Baghdad, because of the internal conflict affecting the country. They returned home on Saturday but said they would be very happy to work in the UAE after two Indian entrepreneurs offered to employ them.

Dr B R Shetty, chief executive and managing director of the Abu Dhabi-based NMC healthcare group, and Dr Azad Moopen, chairman of Aster D M Healthcare, stepped in to assist the nurses, who come from the southern state of Kerala.

“We will be very happy if we can work in Dubai,” said Sherin Verghese, 25, one of the nurses speaking from Kerala. “When we were trapped in our hospital in Tirkit and heard all the bombings, we thought we would not escape alive. We are glad to be back with our families in India but our big worry is our financial problems.

“We have taken huge loans to study and to work in Iraq. We need to repay them,” said Ms Verghese, who earned about US$750 (Dh2,750) a month in Tirkit.

Ms Verghese had worked in a hospital for 11 months before the fighting started.

“The situation was getting bad in the past few weeks. We were not going anywhere out of the hospital. On June 13, the staff and everybody ran away because of the bombs and gun shots but we remained because we thought it was safer. We weren’t sleeping in the nights because of fear. All we did was pray. We saw bombs explode in front of our eyes. The management didn’t give us any information.

“The local government told us to leave as more bombs were exploding and gun shots were increasing. We thought we would die if we left or stayed.”

Amid the chaos, rumours had filtered out of Tikrit about the nurses being abducted by the Islamic State fighters, but Ms Verghese said the local government had taken them to Erbil’s airport by bus and handed them over to Indian government representatives.

Dr Shetty said he had been moved to help the nurses after hearing about their plight.

“It must have been very traumatic for them to have been stuck there for so long. We have 10 hospitals in the UAE, two in Egypt and hospitals in India as well. We will take all 46 nurses and offer jobs where they want. I am very happy to contribute to rehabilitate them.

“I have assured them the UAE is the safest in the world. They don’t have to worry about their safety and security.”

Dr Moopen said he had offered the nurses 25,000 rupees (Dh1,530) each to help cover any immediate expenses as well as jobs with the Aster group in India and Arabian Gulf states.

“We will recruit these repatriated and devastated nurses on priority at Aster Medicity, Kochi, MIMS Hospitals at Calicut and Kottakkal, and DM WIMS Medical College Hospital in Wayanad. For those interested to return to the Middle East, we will accommodate them in our hospitals and clinics in the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia if they fulfil official requirements,” he said.

Dr Shetty added he would also try to find jobs for any other Indian nurses still working at hospitals in Iraq.

“I am trying to desperately go back home,” said Mrs Priyamvadha, a nurse speaking from Babylon. “If someone is ready to offer me and others here jobs in Dubai, we are 100 per cent ready to take them up.”