All the 46 Indian nurses trapped in Iraq after the partial fall of Tikrit to insurgents arrived at the airport in the southern port city on a special flight Saturday to an emotional reunion with their family after three weeks of uncertainty.

The freed nurses said they were not abducted by the rebels and they were in fact arranging a safe passage for them. They said their handlers treated them well and provided food and decent accommodation.

All of them said they faced no difficulty at the hands of the rebels while in captivity or during the transfer to the Indian authorities waiting in Kurdish-held Erbil. One girl said she could not believe that she was back home safely while it was a “second birth” for another girl.

“We have to thank the new dispensation in Mosul. Those who accompanied us included doctors who spoke English and behaved well,” said Neena. “They also gave us an option to work there. But we were skeptical and we never thought they would allow us to go”.

India was maintaining that the nurses were taken to the rebel-held region of Mosul from Tikrit on Thursday “against their will” and the release was a result of “unconventional diplomacy” engaging with several Gulf countries and non-governmental players.

The girls from needy families were forced to work in the unsafe places due to financial commitments back home and they were reluctant to return before the fighting intensified. While 45 of them belonged to Kerala one hailed from Tamil Nadu state.

The flight that landed more than five hours behind the schedule, also carried some 150 Indian workers who wanted to return from Iraq.

They were flown to Hyderabad and Delhi by the same flight.

Kerala Chief Minister oommen Chandy, who camped in New Delhi for the past two days and ensured their safe return, said the rescue operation went on for hours and “risk-taking was involved”.

Though the officials and interlocutors “knocked on several doors” one door was finally opened to reach out to the “captors”.

He, however, refused to reveal the identity and how it was made possible.

“At one point of time, I also lost hope. They were incommunicado for two hours during their transfer from Mosul to Erbin. The flight was also denied landing permit at the airport,” said the chief minister while waiting for the flight along with their family members.

“It’s a relief that words can’t express.”

The Boeing 777 aircraft left Delhi in the afternoon but it had to return after midnight as the Erbil International Airport denied permission to land there.

He then contacted Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and it was cleared within 15 minutes after high-level contact.

“I have been in constant touch with them and their families on a regular basis during the three weeks of crisis. We are thankful to all those who helped us secure their release,” he said.

He waited at the airport for more than an hour and received the nurses with flowers.

He said he was promoting entrepreneurship among students and young graduates to avoid large-scale migration of jobseekers to dangerous territories.

About two million expatriates from Kerala are living in the Gulf region.

The Abu Dhabi-headquartered New Medical Center (NMC) group, headed by Non-Resident Indian (NRI) businessman BR Shetty, has offered “suitable placements” for them in any of the group’s hospitals in India, the UAE, Egypt and Nepal.

The nurses recruited by agents who took bribes for job visas while working in Delhi were not paid for the past four months.

The Kerala government paid an allowance of 5000 rupees to each of them on arrival as a temporary relief.

Chandy had met Swaraj four times during his stay in Delhi discussing plans to ensure their safe return.

On Thursday, the fighters guarding the nurses took them to Mosul from Tikrit, 225 kilometers away, where they were holed up at a hospital amidst heavy fighting.

Two weeks ago, 40 construction workers were kidnapped in Mosul, and all but one of them are still in captivity.

More than 10,000 Indians work in Iraq, mostly in areas unaffected by the fighting, and many have since returned.

Swaraj was in touch with “a host of her counterparts” in the Gulf and “friends within Iraq and outside” exploring ways to reach out to the captors of the young nurses.

The “unconventional diplomacy” also ensured that the girls returned unharmed and not intercepted by any other militant groups while shifting camps.

Three of the nurses had suffered minor wounds from pieces of windowpanes broken under the impact of a blast near the hospital while they were boarding the bus from Saddam Hussein’s hometown.