Stranded Kurds urge KRG for help returning home as India enters lockdown
In one case alone, more than 90 patients from different parts of the Kurdistan Region have found themselves stranded at a hospital in India’s financial and technological capital of Gurugram, unable to return home.
Accompanied by his wife, Sardar Sheikh Mohammed, 54, told Rudaw English they departed the Kurdistan Region on February 28 to seek medical treatment for a pre-existing illness at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram, a city southwest of New Delhi.
They were due to fly back to Erbil on March 19. However, to prevent further contagion, Iraq’s civil aviation authority canceled all commercial flights on March 17.
“We are about 94 Kurds who were patients at this hospital who are now stuck here,” Mohammed, who is from Khalifan, 91 kilometers northeast of Erbil, told Rudaw English via messaging app Viber.
He said other Kurdistan Region residents are also stuck at other hospitals in the city.
All commercial flights have been grounded in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region since March 17. They had been due to resume on March 24, but the ban is likely to be extended. Cargo flights have continued to operate.
“We did not receive any initial warnings so we could pack up and return. It was a sudden decision when we heard that the airports in Iraq will be closed,” Mohammed said.
He urged the KRG to help evacuate them.
“No one cares about our worsening health and financial situation in India. We are all patients and tired,” Mohammed said. “Our situation is extremely bad.”
“There is less food now and getting expensive. We are running out of money. Everyone is angry and tired here. Our children are left alone in Kurdistan.”
“We are pleading for the KRG to come to our aid. We want them to help us return to the Kurdistan Region,” he added.
Kamal Ismael is another "exhausted" patient who is also stuck in India.
"I came to India on February 1 and was supposed to return to Sulaimani on March 18 by the Qatar Airways. But a day earlier we were informed our flight was cancelled," Ismael, 45 from the town of Piramagroon in Sulaimani, told Rudaw English.
"We are calling on the government to do something for us and use their diplomatic channels with the Indian government to help return us," Ismael said. "The sooner we are out of India, the better because India is expected to come under wider lockdown in the coming days."
Prime Minister Narenda Modi announced on Tuesday that the country, home to 1.3 billion people, will go into lockdown for 21 days.
India has 511 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 10 deaths, according to World Meters.
Rudaw English called the KRG's Department of Foreign Relations for a comment, but they did not respond.
However, department head Safeen Dizayi has previously commented on the situation of those stuck outside of the Region who want to return, saying they will look into their cases in coordination with the relevant KRG authorities.
In the Kurdistan Region a raft of strict movement restrictions have been imposed to help contain the spread of coronavirus.
Coronavirus containment measures taken by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have also left scores of students from the Kurdistan Region stranded in Turkey and Northern Cyprus.
A group of 176 students recently signed a petition, seen by Rudaw on Saturday, calling on the KRG to open the Turkish border for a single day to allow them to return.
Rudaw
