Stranded in Lebanon for 18 yrs after losing passport, Punjab man back home after 23 years.
JALANDHAR: A man from Punjab returned from Lebanon after 23 years – 18 of those years spent stranded in that volatile country – because he had lost his passport there in 2006 and all subsequent attempts to return home failed.
By the time he got home, one of the two sons he had left behind had a son of his own.
Gurtej Singh, of Mattewara village in Ludhiana, managed to return to India and was reunited with his family after Rajya Sabha MP Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal took up his case with the ministry of external affairs, which then facilitated his return.
Gurtej, who belongs to Mazhabi Sikh community, returned to his village on Sept 6 after having left in 2001. The entire village celebrated his return.
In the 23 years he was away, Gurtej lost his father and brother. “I was working in a factory in Ludhiana but was finding it difficult to sustain the family. I thought of moving abroad and arranged Rs 1 lakh, demanded by a travel agent. Initially I was flown to Jordan, from where I was sneaked into Syria, and then to Lebanon. In 2006, I lost my passport and then all my attempts to return failed. I was working there in the fields, and it was frightening due to the long conflict in the region,” Gurtej recalled.
Baba Seechewal told TOI that Gurtej had been making rounds of the Indian embassy in Lebanon, but every time the embassy officials would ask him to get some proof.
By the time he got home, one of the two sons he had left behind had a son of his own.
Gurtej Singh, of Mattewara village in Ludhiana, managed to return to India and was reunited with his family after Rajya Sabha MP Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal took up his case with the ministry of external affairs, which then facilitated his return.
Gurtej, who belongs to Mazhabi Sikh community, returned to his village on Sept 6 after having left in 2001. The entire village celebrated his return.
In the 23 years he was away, Gurtej lost his father and brother. “I was working in a factory in Ludhiana but was finding it difficult to sustain the family. I thought of moving abroad and arranged Rs 1 lakh, demanded by a travel agent. Initially I was flown to Jordan, from where I was sneaked into Syria, and then to Lebanon. In 2006, I lost my passport and then all my attempts to return failed. I was working there in the fields, and it was frightening due to the long conflict in the region,” Gurtej recalled.
Baba Seechewal told TOI that Gurtej had been making rounds of the Indian embassy in Lebanon, but every time the embassy officials would ask him to get some proof.