Kochi Airport Director AC K Nair told ANI here on Saturday that special arrangements have been made at the airport for the safe and quick transfer of Kerala nurses to their native places.
Expressing grief over the situation of the stranded nurses, and at the same time thanking both the state and central governments for their evacuation, Nair described it as an achievement for the people, and they are very happy that the government succeeded in safely securing the release of all nurses from the conflict zone in Iraq.
"There are separate immigration counters to clear them in a fast track method, and for the customs also, all the officers will be helping them. There 23 crew members and three government officials for them. We had two rounds of separate coordination meetings yesterday to take care of these passengers without any problems to transfer them. We have also arranged refreshments for the relatives. There is a separate counter to report so that they could be taken to separate terminal and take rest," said Nair.
"The Non Resident Keralite Association (NRKA) has confirmed a cash amount of 5000 rupees for each of the nurses, and we have arranged for medical facilities with ambulance and snacks for them," he added.
The 46 nurses had been reportedly taken away by ISIS militants from Tikrit to an old building somewhere in Mosul late on Thursday night.
There were about 10,000 Indians in Iraq before the start of the strife between government troops and Sunni militants. The militants have captured two key cities and have their sights set on Baghdad. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been displaced in the fighting that broke out on June 10.
