Trapped in Libya since March,UP man sends SOS to kin

“After five days in Benghazi,the company shifted us to Misrata by ship. We are staying at the company’s camp office in Misrata. My passport is still with the company and they say it is lying at its headquarters in Tripoli where the condition is still volatile,” said Jaiswal over the phone. Misrata is 210 km from Tripoli,where the conditions are still uncertain and the contact number of the Indian Embassy in Tripoli still unreachable,said Jaiswal. Jaiswal has been calling his family in Maharajganj every other day,requesting them to find out if the Indian government had made some arrangements for citizens like him. His company has assured to send him to whatever place from where the Indian authorities could arrange an airlift,said Jaiswal. Thirty-four-year-old Arvind,a resident of Maharajganj’s Kothibhar locality,had gone to Libya in January,leaving behind his wife Savita Devi and three children,on a two-year work visa.

In February,tension broke out in Libya and his company was forced to close operations. Jaiswal then stayed in Jalu’s Miyan Talata area along with eight other employees,three of whom were from Bangladesh,three from Thailand and two from Nigeria. After his contact number became unreachable,Jaiswal’s worried family called the Indian Embassy in Tripoli but got no news. But they said they could do something for Jaiswal if he reached Tripoli or Benghazi airport.

In April,Jaiswal managed to contact his family in India and told them that he had very little money left but the company was taking care of their needs. For security reasons,the company had advised him and other employees not to move out on their own.

Jaiswal’s family then contacted R P N Singh,Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas,who is an MP from neighbouring Kushi Nagar district. Singh spoke to Vayalar Ravi,Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs,and instructed his staff to follow up Jaiswal’s case. “The situation was so bad that for cash,the stranded men tried to sell off personal belongings like watches and clothes but there were no takers,” said Arvind’s younger brother Anil Jaiswal. His brother told him that the locals were also helpless because of the lawlessness and shortage of money and food. “Three months back,I received a call from the Ministry of External Affairs informing that efforts were on for the safe return of my brother. They told us it was not safe to go to the place where my brother was staying as the rebels were armed,’’ said Anil. That was the last time they heard from any Indian official.