Kochi : It was like a second birth for Neenu Jose from Idukki. The nurse, just evacuated from Iraq, celebrated her 24th birthday with relatives at a hotel near Nedumbassery airport on Saturday before leaving to her home.

When the cake was cut, the anxiety that had gripped her for the weeks faded and smile appeared on her face.

“I never expected I would be able to celebrate this birthday in the company of my dear ones. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy also wished me on my birthday,” said Neenu.

But her cheer may not last long.

These nurses who are back from Iraq are aware of the harsh reality awaiting them now.

Neenu got an offer to join the Tikrit Teaching Hospital in Iraq while working as nurse at a Delhi hospital after completing her course from Pushapagiri Medical College in Thiruvalla in Kerala.

Poor financial condition at home forced her to go to Iraq as the hospital offered her a salary of Rs.50,000 per month.

In most private hospitals in India, nurses are paid low and are often not in a position to repay the loans they took to study nursing.

Neenu’s family took a Rs.4-lakh loan. Her father, John, a small farmer in Rajakkad in Idukki district, had pledged his house in lieu of the money.

Neenu left India for Iraq four months ago, but has not yet received any salary for the work she did at the Tikrit hospital.

“I got back my daughter. I won’t let her leave me again. I am not thinking about anything else now,” said Neenu’s mother Alice, weeping.

Neenu’s case is not an isolated one.

Most of the nurses who went to Iraq in the past few months are from poor families who took educational loans.

Many of their parents have pledged property at high rate of interest to arrange money for the education.

Nurse Nithyamol’s father M.O. John pledged, based in Kottayam, pledged a part of his land and the house to a cooperative bank to avail Rs.1-lakh loan in 2013.

The daily wage labourer was forced sent her daughter to Iraq nine months ago when his health deteriorated.

Nithyamol was working in Iraq without salary for three months in the Tikrit hospital. She was offered a salary of Rs.45,000 per month by the Iraq hospital when recruited.

The case is the same with several other nurses too.

“Nurses in Kerala are still getting meagre salaries even though the government’s labour department made it mandatory for private hospitals to pay Rs.10,000 as minimum salary. Ninety per cent of the hospitals in Kerala are paying less than Rs.6,000 per month to nurses. These nurses are forced to go to Iraq and other Gulf countries to repay their loans. The government should take immediate steps to end the exploitation of nurses by private hospitals in Kerala,” said Jasmin Sha, president of Kerala Nurses Association.

While the government was trying to evacuate the nurses stuck in Tikrit, five nurses from the state went to Bagdad in the last week of June.