BAGHDAD, 27 April 2004 — The Indian Embassy here is trying to locate several hundred Indians believed stranded in war-torn Iraq, diplomats said yesterday. The stranded Indians are deprived of basic necessities amid the chaos of guerrilla attacks against the US occupation forces there, the embassy said.

The crisis has grown acute in the face of an “ultimatum” issued by groups like the Shiite Mahdi’s Army of Moqtada Sadr and others to all foreigners working for military contractors to leave Iraq. They have been warned that they would be considered part of the occupation forces if they stayed.

The Indian Embassy here does not have accurate numbers of Indian workers in Iraq, as few of them have bothered to contact the mission after landing there.

Indian Ambassador to Iraq B. B. Tyagi told Arab News that some of the stranded Indians have been repatriated and the embassy is trying to contact others. In the absence of specific addresses or any detail about their whereabouts, the mission is finding the job difficult.

Those who left belonged to group of 100 to 120 Indians, most of them said to be from Kerala, who were taken there by a Bombay-based employment agency six months ago. They had reportedly paid up to 75,000 rupees to the employment “agent” in Bombay and were promised high salaries working for a sub-contractor to a US military contractor. Their plight came to light in a letter sent by one of the group to his family and a follow-up telephone call in mid-April. According to the letter and phone call, the group had not been paid salaries for two months and that the workers did not have enough food or water and they wanted to leave the country.

A Kerala newspaper carried a report on the group and this prompted the state Chief Minister A.K. Antony to call Indian Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee to demand that the stranded Indians be repatriated immediately. Vajpayee took action and the embassy in Baghdad was informed to repatriate all Indians who wanted to return.

Tyagi, reached at his residence in Baghdad over the phone, said he did not have details of the Indians present in Iraq, but the mission was seeking to locate them. “We are aware of the problem and we are following up,” Tyagi said. “Some of the group have been sent home and they would have a better idea about the situation about those left behind,” he said. He said the embassy was working on repatriating the others and referred all further questions to the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi.

In Delhi, ministry officials confirmed that a group of Indians had traveled to neighboring Jordan from where they were expected to be flown home after medical check-ups. However, as of yesterday afternoon, there was no reported arrivals of anyone from the group in the Jordanian capital. The officials also said that some of the Indians who were contacted by the Indian mission in Baghdad had said they preferred to stay on in the country.