Kuwait City: As many as 34 Indian nurses, including 19 Keralites who spent three weeks in Kuwaiti jails on the charge of violating the residency laws, have been released.
Even as proceedings for their deportation were progressing, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan intervened and secured their release. They were released from the jails and taken to the hospital for a medical examination.
The nurses were detained during a raid by the Kuwait Human Resources Committee officials on a private clinic at Maliya in Kuwait City. According to the Kuwait Home Ministry, the nurses did not have relevant licences or required qualifications to work in Kuwait.
However, the family members of the Keralite nurses claimed that they were qualified and had been working there with proper work visas and sponsorships.
Several of them have been working there for the past three to 10 years in the same clinic. People from Philippines, Egypt and Iran have also been caught by the authorities on similar charges.
The hospital is owned by an Iranian national and according to the relatives of the nurses, a dispute between the owner and the sponsor had led to the raid and arrest.
Kin of the arrested Malayali nurses had sought the intervention of the Union Government and the Indian Embassy for the early release of the nurses.
