KOTTAYAM: The first batch of 48 Malayali nurses, who left war-hit Libya the other day, will reach Kochi on Tuesday morning and the remaining 10 members of the 58 member team will reach here on Wednesday, said officials of the Non-Resident Keralite Affairs department (NoRKA).
Meanwhile, the second batch of 43, including a child, is expected to reach Tunisia, on Sunday morning. The first batch had reached Tunis airport on Saturday morning.
According to the relative of one of the Malayali nurses, the first batch of nurses reached safely in Tunis and provided accommodation at Le Pacha hotel there.
“Their team was split in to two before leaving Tunisian border by around 9 pm IST on Friday. They reached Le Pacha hotel in Tunis at around 6 am IST and are comfortable with the accommodation provided. The official with the Indian Embassy in Tunisia arranged rooms for them,” he said.
According to P Sudeep, CEO, NoRKA, the first batch will be brought to Kochi via Dubai. “The first group of 48 members out the 58 member batch will board the flight to Dubai at 6.30pm on Monday. They are expected to reach Dubai by 12 am on Tuesday. After a halt for three and half hours they will leave for Kochi. The rest of the 10 members will be brought to Kochi in the same manner on the following day,” Sudeep told Express.
Sudeep added that the second batch’s departure was delayed due to some migration issues at the Tunisian border and the team is expected to leave Tripoli on Sunday morning.
“The second batch did not receive migration permission at Tunisian border till late Saturday evening. If the issues can be sorted out by Sunday morning, they will move to Tunisia at the earliest,” he said.
Meanwhile, as many as 295 people have already registered online with NoRKA to come back to their home land. Of this a list of 262 people has been forwarded to the Union Ministry of External Affairs.
Meanwhile, NoRKA said that more than 1,000 Malayalis are in Libya and efforts are on to bring back all of those who are interested in coming back to Kerala.