34 Malayali nurses being evacuated from Libya

New Delhi: Nearly 34 Indian nurses are being evacuated from strife-torn Libya by the government and the first batch of 12 will arrive on Thursday in Kochi.

“A group of 12 Indian nurses are on their way from Tunisia and will arrive in Kochi on Thursday. Another batch of 22 nurses are also on their way from Tunisia and are likely to arrive in Kochi on 18th December,” official spokesperson in the external affairs ministry Syed Akbaruddin said.

The government has already evacuated nearly 3000 nationals from Libya after the second round of violence which started early this year. Prior to the uprising in Libya, the number of Indians there was estimated to be more than 18,000 and were mainly employed in hospitals and other teaching institutions whereas a major part of manpower was engaged in construction projects.

During the course of the revolution, most of them were evacuated to India in February-March 2011. Few hundred Indians continued to serve in Libya even during the revolution period.

Gradually, more Indians have returned to Libya and there were about 4,500 registered Indians before the outbreak of fresh violence there.