Pune resident, six others stranded in Iraq as govt withholds exit visa

The employees of a Pune-based IT company are in Karbala on a project for a hospital, but the Iraqi government has been delaying issuing them exit visas

While 40 Indian construction workers have been abducted in Iraq (see box), a Punekar has run into another form of trouble in the war-torn country.

Seven persons — one from the city and others from Mumbai — working with Daccess IT Infra Pvt Ltd Company on a project, have been stranded in Iraq for two days.

The company has contacted the Indian embassy there to facilitate their early transit back to India, but it would still take two more days, officials said. The company refused to disclose the identity of the employees, but said they are in contact with their relatives.

Project began in Dec
Nilesh Thackeray, director of the company that is located on Baner Road, told mid-day that they had undertaken a project of installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and local are network (LAN) in Al-Kafila Hospital of Baldavi group in Karbala city in Iraq.

“Our team has been working there since December 2013, and the project was expected to take a year to complete. All our employees are safe, but the Iraqi government has been delaying issuance of exit visas for four days.

We have contacted embassy officials in this regard and expect that the visa will be granted in two days,” Thackeray said.

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