'We had not seen any fighting, but we could hear guns and bombs exploding.'
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com and Reuben N V/Rediff.com traveled to Kerala to meet some of the nurses who have returned from civil-war ravaged Libya.
Geena Jose, 28, went to Libya in 2012. She worked as a nurse at the Abu Salem Hospital in the capital Tripoli.
"I was working for the ministry of health," she says. "When we landed it was peaceful. (Libyan dictator) Muammar Gaddafi has been deposed a year earlier and the people had settled down," Geena remembers.
Even after the civil war began in Libya, the Indian nurses were not in any danger, she says.
"It was peaceful in the hospital and hostel which is right behind the hospital. We were not in any danger. We had not seen any fighting, but we could hear guns and bombs exploding. Thirty women refused to come back with us. They decided to stay back and continue to work. I used to get a salary of Rs 45,000 a month. Here I will get Rs 7,000 for twice that amount of work."
"I am pregnant and all the hospitals which had gynecology departments had shut down in Tripoli. I knew I could not deliver a baby there safely," she says, explaining why she returned.
"We will go back after the civil war stops," she adds.
The nurses had to resign from their jobs to return to India. Indian embassy officials took them by bus to neighbouring Tunisia. The Indian ambassador met them at the hotel where they were put up.
"Everything was managed well by the government. We faced no problems anywhere. They provided us with papers and air tickets to come back," Geena says.
"There were two reasons that made me come back. I was pregnant and when the airport shut down we were all scared. It meant we could not leave even if we wanted to. 177 Indians came back, but many are still working there."
"When I sent her there it was peaceful," says Geena's father Jose Thomas. "My cousin is working there. As we already knew someone in Libya I had no qualms about sending her there. When we read in the papers about what was happening there, we were worried and scared. We told her to return. We were talking to her on Skype every day, so we were in touch at all times."
Indian officials contacted the nurses on e-mail and via sms, telling them the giovernment was ready to take them back home. Her husband, who also worked in Libya, returned with her.
The Department of Non Resident Keralites Affairs looks after non-resident Keralites all over the world. They provided Rediff.com a list of nurses who had returned from Libya. One name on this list was Sheena Jose.
When we went to her home, her parents were shocked to see the list, since Sheena is still in Libya and has no plans of coming back. "My daughter-in-law is working at the Benghazi Medical College Hospital. It is a big hospital on 2,500 acres of land. There are nearly 1,500 nurses working there. She speaks to us every day," says Sheena's mother-in-law Gracy Mathew. "There is peace there. Nothing is wrong."
"Our neighbour's daughter is also in Libya. She is a nurse. She has come down for a holiday, you can talk to her," Mrs Mathew volunteers helpfully.
When we call the lady on the phone, she asks her not "to mention my name in any report. I came to see my children. I was planning to go back when the airport shut down. Once the airport opens I will go back. I work in Benghazi and nothing is wrong there."
"You media people don't create a scare. My friends are still working there. Don't write something that will harm them," she says. "You people have only negative things to write. You want sensational news. There is nothing sensational about a mother coming back to see her children."
Mabhouvya is only 26 and already a Libya veteran. Her smile belies the trauma she has been through and her eyes are wistful when she mentions a Rs 200,000 student loan she is yet to repay.
"My friends call me Maya as they find my name very difficult to pronounce. I went to Libya in 2012 as a family friend worked there. I have a diploma in nursing. I used to work in a private hospital here. Then I got a temporary job in the government hospital in Kayamkulam. I was paid Rs 7,480 a month here. I was offered Rs 45,000 in Libya and I was working for the ministry of health."
"The hospital and hostel were safe, but in the last three months we could not go out as thugs roamed the streets. Things went from bad to worse these last three months," says Mabhouvya. "I was in touch with my parents. I am an only child and my family was upset with what they saw on television."
"The news from Libya was very disturbing so we told her to come back," adds her father.
When the Indian government announced it would bring the nurses home, Mabhouvya grabbed the opportunity. "The airport was shut so we boarded a bus that took 13 hours to reach Tunisia. We had no problems crossing the border as the MEA (India's ministry of external affairs) had cleared all hurdles. The government officials were very helpful."
She is upset that she could not collect her gratuity for two years work there. "If we had given one month notice before quitting they would have given us gratuity too, but we left in a hurry. I just resigned and came home."
The Libyan experience has not shaken Mabhouvya's self-confidence. "If I get a job offer from any country in the world except Iraq and Libya I am ready to leave just now," she declares.
"I still have a Rs 2 lakh student loan to pay off. I will earn and pay it back. From Libya, I sent money home regularly. I built this house we are sitting in just now," she said proudly.
What of the nurses who have come back?
The Kerala government promised the nurses that the wages due to them would be collected and paid to them, particularly to those who worked for the government there. Banks have been advised to forgo interest that these nurses owe them on student loans. The banks are under no compulsion to do this.
Government jobs are not available. Private employment means working for wages of about Rs 7,000 a month.
Geena is waiting to deliver her child, Mabhouvya awaits a call from her hospital in Libya to go back.
Top Image: Mabhouvya with her parents at her home in Kerala. Photograph: Reuben N V/Rediff.com.
Middle Image: The road leading up to Geena Jose's home. She did not want to be photographed because she is pregnant. Photograph: Reuben N V/Rediff.com.
Bottom Image: An aircraft damaged in shelling at the Tripoli International Airport. Photograph: Aimen Elsahli/Reuters
