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Indian truckers under repatriation threat in Kuwait
About 150 Indian truck drivers in Kuwait face the prospect of being sent home because their employer wants them to make trips to Iraq ignoring New Delhi's ban on their going there.
About 150 Indian truck drivers in Kuwait face the prospect of being sent home because their employer wants them to make trips to Iraq ignoring New Delhi's ban on their going there.
Kuwait's PWC Logistics has reportedly told the truckers that it has no option but to ease them out because its lobbying with the Indian embassy in Kuwait has failed to result in New Delhi lifting the ban.
Although some truck drivers are said to be ready to go to Iraq despite the risks, the Indian government and its diplomats in the region are firm in their belief that any Indian in Iraq risks being taken hostage by Islamist groups.
"Every Indian in Iraq is a potential hostage," a top official in the external affairs ministry in New Delhi said. "So we are clear that we are not going to lift the ban."
India imposed the ban in July following the kidnapping of three Indian truckers by an Iraqi militant group and directed companies in Kuwait and Jordan that provide supplies to US troops in Iraq not to send Indians to the war-torn nation.
The three Indians, abducted by a little known outfit called Holders of the Black Banners, were released last week after spending 42 days in custody, reportedly after their Kuwaiti company paid a huge ransom.
The Indian drivers employed by PWC have been running from pillar to post, pleading with the company not to send them back to India.
They have submitted memorandums to the Indian embassy in Kuwait as well as the external affairs ministry here seeking their intervention.
The truckers, drawn from different parts of India, have told the Kuwaiti company that they had paid huge sums of money to take up their jobs and they could not afford to go back home within four months of their arrival.
"We have paid more than Rs.100, 000 for our travel, after taking loans, to get the visa to come here... We have lost our former jobs also," the drivers said in a joint letter to the company's human resource department, urging it to review its stand.
The company has politely refused to do so.
"We sincerely regret that this action has become necessary as we understand the financial hardship you will suffer as a result. However, PWC, in order to run its business, cannot continue to operate and pay employees to remain idle," it said in a letter to the employees. A copy of the letter is with IANS.
Officials in the external affairs ministry admit it is under great pressure from various quarters, including Kuwait, to lift the ban on Indians travelling to Iraq.
Another official said even the US embassies in Kuwait and New Delhi had requested India to rethink, keeping in view the fact that truckers are needed in Kuwait to ferry goods needed by US troops in Iraq.
However, Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed and officials of the Crisis Management Group that oversaw the release of the abducted Indian truckers have rejected the requests.
But the drivers employed by PWC still have their fingers crossed.
"They expect the company to give them some more time on humanitarian grounds," the ministry official explained. "But the government has already clarified that it cannot any more risks with Indians in Iraq."
