For the 46 Malayali nurses caught amid the spiralling violence fuelled by Islamic State (IS) terrorists in Iraq in 2014, the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was not just a voice of reassurance on the other side of the phone, but someone on whom they rested all their hopes. It was not in vain as a few weeks later, they landed safely back in Kerala as a result of the interventions that the State government had made through the Indian Embassy.
Sayona Thomas, one among the nurses who were rescued, reminisces about those dark days when the regular calls with the Chief Minister’s office were the only thing that kept them going.
“We were all working at the Tikrit Teaching Hospital. The situation began to get worse early in June 2014 with the IS bombing facilities near the hospital. The doctors and other staff from Iraq warned us that things could get out of hand soon. Later, they too stopped coming. The Baghdad airport was five hours away. We got in touch with the Indian Embassy first. A Malayali staff working there asked us to get in touch with the Chief Minister’s office. When we called the office, we got the chance to speak about our issues directly to the CM. He told us to remain calm and assured us that every step will be taken to bring us back,” says Ms. Thomas.
Chandy had then got in touch with the then Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who initiated steps for the safe evacuation of the nurses. The IS terrorists who wanted to take control of the hospital had wanted to shift the nurses out. They were first taken to Mosul and from there to the Erbil airport.
“When we finally landed in Kerala on July 5, the Chief Minister was there to receive us. A few weeks later, the State government organised meetings with various hospitals, in which all of us got job offers either in hospitals in Kerala or West Asia. The government also ensured that we received our experience certificates from Iraq as well as our pending salary,” remembers Ms. Thomas.
The ordeal of the nurses was portrayed on screen in the film Take Off directed by Mahesh Narayanan.
