Nimisha Priya a victim of transnational economic system: Medical workers in India seek return of nurse on death row in Yemen

Nimisha Priya a victim of transnational economic system: Medical workers in India seek return of nurse on death row in Yemen

Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum (PMSF), a forum of undergraduate students, faculty members, resident doctors and scientists of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, (Delhi) has requested the Indian Government to put in all the efforts to bring back Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Kerala, who is on death row in a Yemen for alleged murder of a Yemeni national.

Stating that nurse Nimisha’s case can’t be reduced to a business dispute, the Forum noted that she is a victim of a transnational economic system where skilled labour from countries like India, ends up in horrific exploitative dangerous working and living conditions in countries in the Middle East.

Nimisha is a victim herself, said Siddharth Tara, chairperson, PMSF. In its communication the Forum has said that many health care workers in India are struggling due to the low paying contract based work culture that has overtaken the private healthcare system here in India.

“Out of desperation, these medical workers end up leaving for uncertain shores. Even those who manage to secure jobs in countries with relatively safer workplace norms like those in the West are exploited by their employers, for fear of losing their work visa,’’ said the Forum in its release.

The Forum noted that Nimisha has suffered much more than economic exploitation.

Also read | Nimisha Priya case in Yemen: ‘We will do whatever we can,’ says highly placed Iranian official

They said that her business partner took advantage of the breakdown of law and order during the civil war in Yemen, as he knew she had taken huge loans for the private clinic she bought for her practice.

“She found herself trapped in a lawless situation away from her family. And that’s when the sexual and physical torture began. Her business partner took away her passport and enslaved her. A slave cannot be blamed for rebellion, for resisting oppression. It’s a moral right and also a duty of every human to fight for his freedom and find a way back to his people. Fighting for freedom can never be a crime,’’ said the group.

“We demand our policymakers wake up and start treating Indian medical professionals and other skilled or unskilled workers as human capital instead of cheap labour to be rented overseas, to avoid finding itself in such a situation again and do everything possible to bring nurse Nimisha home,’’ the group said adding that the government should work on expanding and reinvigorating our public health care system that used to be the largest employer of medical manpower and a source of lasting financial security with pensions, that prevented our talented health care workers from becoming economic refugees and slaves in unwelcome lands.