Seven engineers from Mumbai, Pune stranded in Iraq

Seven engineers working for a Pune-based IT company are trapped in war-torn Iraq as the government there has delayed in issuing ‘exit visas’ to two of them. However, the director of the company believes its employees will receive an exit visa by Sunday, allowing the team to return to India in the next few days.   

All seven engineers belong to Daccess IT Infra Pvt. Ltd. located in Pune’s Baaner region. Among these, six are from Mumbai and one is a resident of Pune. The company has tied up with a firm in Iraq.

Nilesh Thackaray, director of Daccess IT Infra told dna: “We have taken a contract for installing IT infrastructure in the ‘Al-Kaafila’ hospital in Karbala city of Iraq, which was received from Dafir-Al-Baldwai. Hence, the company had sent a team of its employees on a project of setting up CCTV, LAN networking and IT infrastructure in the hospital.”

“The stranded engineers have been working in Iraq since December 2013, but since Iraq is now hit by violence, we have recalled our all officers from there. Five of its engineers do have extended visas till August, but they are stuck there as two engineers don’t have the ‘exit visa’, which is given by the Iraqi authorities to leave the country. They are expected to get it by today. As soon as we get a confirmation from them, we will arrange next day’s air tickets for them”, Thackaray added.

However, he refused to give any additional information about the seven stranded Indians. Thackaray said, “All its employees in Karbala are safe and the company is in a constant touch with the counter firm, the Iraqi embassy and central government to bring them back to homeland”. 

Meanwhile, Iraqi Ambassador to India Ahmad Tahseen Ahmed Berwari said the Iraqi authorities are working in close cooperation and coordination with the Indian government to evacuate the Indians stuck in the strife-torn country.