UAE-based Indian businessman offers jobs to 46 Indian nurses

DUBAI: A leading UAE-based Indian businessman has offered jobs to 46 Indian nurses who returned to their homeland after being stranded for about a month in the militants-held region in Iraq.

NMC Healthcare Group CEO Dr B R Shetty has made the offer to nurses, assuring them he would find place for them in the UAE, an NMC official said.

The nurses lost their jobs and livelihood in the violence-hit Iraq.

Shetty, who owns and runs hospitals in the UAE, Egypt and India, has conveyed his offer to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the official said.

After about a month's long ordeal in the strife-torn Iraq, the nurses returned to their homeland yesterday with most of them vowing not to go back risking their lives.

Of the 46 nurses, 45 hail from various districts of Kerala and one belongs to Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.

Al-Qaeda splinter group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has carved out a large fiefdom along the Iraqi-Syrian border and declared an Islamic caliphate across the stretch of territory it controls, posing a threat to Baghdad.

The nurses were stranded in Tikrit, a city captured by the militants early last month.