SHARJAH, 24 May 2004 — The Indian Embassy in Baghdad is arranging the return home of 36 Indians who were arrested for illegally entering Iraq. All of them are from Punjab.
Indian Ambassador B.B. Tyagi said the embassy took charge of the Indians — a group of 26 a week ago and another group of 10 on Saturday — from Iraqi police. Both groups had smuggled themselves into Iraq across the border from Jordan, the first group in March and the second in May, and were arrested by Iraqi police.
Tyagi said the mission contacted Iraqi police and asked for information on any Indian anywhere in the country. “In response to our request, the Iraqi authorities handed over the Indians to the mission, and they are now housed at the embassy waiting to be sent home,” Tyagi told Arab News by phone.
“They had no visa to Iraq and had no employment contract to work for anyone in Iraq,” said Tyagi. “They landed in Jordan on a single entry visa and entered Iraq hoping that they would be able to get to another country from there,” he said.
It was not immediately clear where they wanted to go from Iraq. Iraqi police could have charged them and sent them to prison, but the intervention by the embassy saved them. Most of the 36 Punjabis have air tickets to return home via Amman, Jordan. Families in India are remitting the cost of tickets for those who do not have passage home, the ambassador said, adding he expected all of them to go home by end of this week. “We could also send them through Iran, which is relatively easier from Baghdad, and put them on a flight to India from Tehran, but most of them have tickets to fly back to India from Amman,” Tyagi said.
In the meantime, the embassy is providing them with food, shelter and medical services — however, no one in the group is seriously ill. The embassy is also continuing efforts to locate other Indians who want to return home, including a number of Keralites who are reportedly stuck in a US military camp near Baghdad run by the American Services Center.
