Santosh Mahallick with his mother and spouse and (right) Madan Mohan Mallick with his mother after their return from Iraq. Telegraph pictures

Kendrapara, July 11: Santosh Mahallick, 47, a plumber from Sandhapalli in Pattamundai, went to Iraq in October 2013, in search of a bright future, but little did he know he would homebound soon.

The plumber, who was not even a matriculate, earned a handsome sum of Rs 40,000 a month. However, his dreams dashed with the civil war erupting in the country.

Due to the timely intervention by the Union external affairs ministry, Mahallick had a safe return to his native village on Thursday.

Kendrapara, known for its skilled labourers particularly plumbers are working in the Middle East and Arab countries besides South East Asian countries over years to eke out a better living.

Mahallick ironically had a similar harrowing experience in Libya in 2011 when the North African nation was embroiled in civil war. He is second time lucky for having a providential escape from claws of death.

Like him, three other returnees —Mandan Mohan Mallick- Nandini Nagar, Debashis Rout- Mohanpur, Akshaya Beura- Manapur — from Iraq are back in their native village from Karbala, the holiest city of Shia Muslims. The workers from Kendrapara, who were employed as plumbers in an under-construction Siad Karbala group of hospitals, were mute witness to gunfights, air strikes in Karbala 100km southwest of Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Mahallick, recounting the show of generosity and help from Iraqi people during the most distressing hours of their life, said: “Everything was fine till July 2. Karbala is a place of pilgrimage of Shia Muslims and we were feeling safe in Karbala, far away from conflict zones. The locals had soothing and reassuring words for us. We were told that we were in safe hands in abode of Allah. The employers were cordial and courteous and told us not to get worried.”

“As I had nightmarish experience in Libya’s Tripoli during eruption of civil war in 2011, I was not all that perturbed. In the camp at the construction site, there were 137 workers including me. We were four from Kendrapara besides two from Ganjam district with one worker from Khurda,” he said.

Madan Mohan Mallick, another returnee from Iraq said” “At the outset, we did not fear much, as the war was taking place very far from us. In the course of time we were not far from it. There was deafening sound of bullets, bombardments and air strikes. This was taking place hardly a kilometre from our base camp. We prayed to God. We had taken it granted that all of us would die.”

“Air strikes and gunfights began during late night of July 2 and lasted till July 3 evening. We were confined within the camp house. We took dry food. There was water inside the camp. There was no power supply. From the windows, we could catch hazy glimpse of the fiery battle. As things cooled down, we moved out of the camp and could spot scraps of bombarded shells,” Mahallick recalled.

“Three Indian Embassy personnel rushed to us on July 4 and prevailed upon the employers for our repatriation. On July 8, embassy people brought 90 of us, including four from Kendrapara, to Al Nafaz airport. Armed Iraqi military men escorted two buses that we boarded. We were flown to Baghdad airport on the same day. On July 9, we were flown to the New Delhi airport. From New Delhi, we air travelled to Bhubaneswar,” he said.

There are about a dozen of plumbers from Kendrapara who are still stranded in Iraq. Though they are not in danger, they all long for homecoming.

The crux of the problem is that many of the workers do not have workers’ visa. Through agents and middlemen, they had made their way to Iraq with tourists’ visa. As a result, they have turned illegal immigrants.