Indians may now consider travel to Iraq, excepting five provinces: MEA

Provinces— Nineveh, Salahuddin, Diyala, Anbar and Kirkur remain on the advisory

Iraq Protests Security forces close an area of protests with barriers during ongoing anti-government protests in downtown Baghdad, Iraq | AP

The Indian government has scaled down the travel advisory to its citizens for Iraq, given a slight improvement in the situation there. However, five provinces in Iraq — Nineveh, Salahuddin, Diyala, Anbar and Kirkur remain on the advisory. 

In a notification today, the Ministry of external affairs (MEA) said that "those Indian nationals wishing to travel for employment and already having work permits and appropriate visas may return to their jobs in the safe areas in Iraq otehr than those listed above as unsafe areas.'' The MEA has also asked these people to inform the Indian embassy in Baghdad or the Consulate general of India in Erbil before their travel to Iraq. The government has also given the green signal to Indians who wish to travel to Iraq on pilgrimage, to Najaf and Karbala. However, it has cautioned that these pilgrims should not extend the pilgrimage to neighbouring Syria and not travel by road between Iraq and Syria. 

India had first issued a travel advisory on June 12, 2014, cautioning Indians to travel to the country "until further notice''. The advisory was scaled down last February following an improvement in the security situation, though the five provinces affected by terrorism remained out of bounds. Earlier this year, on January 8, however, India issued an advisory cautioning against all non essential travel to and within Iraq. 

Iraq has always attracted the Indian labour force, both blue collar workers as well as engineers and other experts. Though the 1980s were the heyday, with the Indian workforce in Iraq going as high as 80,000, post 2010, the numbers were steadily rising again. However, when the security situation began devolving in 2014, India issued its first advisory for the country in recent times. The Indian government had put up a big effort in rescuing stranded workers. In a statement to Rajya Sabha in August 2014, then external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj stated India rescued around 5,000 workers, while around 20,000 were in safe zones. This rescue included getting back 46 nurses from Kerala who were captive in the civil hospital in Tikrit, right in the centre of the war zone. The nurses were captive there for 23 days before they were rescued. The incident inspired the Salman Khan blockbuster Tiger Zinda Hai

However, while the rescue operations brought much cheer, it was sobered with the loss of 39 workers from Punjad. For years, there was hope that they might just be alive, till in March 2018, the Indian government finally announced that they were dead, after their remains were recovered from a mass grave outside Mosul. 

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