Meanwhile, a Keralite youth in Iraq jail

India has banned travel to Iraq. However, companies continue to recruit Indians in the name of employment in Kuwait or other neighbouring countries and then send them into Iraq.

The news about Sijo came to light when a his colleague called up from Iraq on August 22, disclosing that he was imprisoned in a US army jail in Mussol airport. This was after American soldiers found him carrying a digital photo memory stick in their base, where digital recording equipment are prohibited.

All efforts by his father Mannar Kizhangad Jose and relatives since to secure Sijo’s release have drawn a blank. Sijo, who has a dilploma in hotel management, had been working for a catering company in Kuwait when he was sent to Iraq two years ago. But all these days he had told his family that he was still in Kuwait. The last he rang up home was on July 22.

Though his parents submitted a petition to the Indian Embassy to get him released, there has been no response.

The Indian mission in Iraq took up the matter with US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. India was told that Sijo was being tried for charges that he was a threat to Iraq’s internal security. The release of people booked under such charges come up for review every 90 days. Sources said comments by Natwar Singh in the heat of the Volcker controversy that the current Iraqi government has no credibility had not helped matters.