Stuck in Lebanon, Ludhiana man returns after 23 years

A Ludhiana resident, Gurtej Singh, who had gone to Lebanon illegally 23 years ago and had been stuck there since then, has finally returned home. The 55-year-old, who had lost the hope in these years, was able to return after the Union ministry of external affairs issued him a passport last month.

Gurtej, a resident of Mattewara village in Ludhiana district, said he went to Lebanon through donkey route via Jordan and Syria in 2001. According to him, he lost his passport in 2006 following which he made all possible efforts to get back his passport in the past 15 years.

His matter came to light after his family approached Rajya Sabha member Balbir Singh Seechewal and narrated Gurtej’s ordeals in the country that has faced several airstrikes by Israel due to Hezbollah’s support to Hamas in Gaza Strip. Seechewal said, “I contacted the ministry of external affairs and briefed them about him being trapped in foreign land. The ministry directed the passport issuing authorities in Chandigarh to re-issue a fresh passport, which took eight months to do so.”

Gurtej, who along with his family members came to meet Seechewal on Friday, said he had lost the hope of coming back to India as his efforts to get a new passport went in vain in these 15 years. “It is like a second birth for me. I left my family and two children at the age of 31 in 2001. Today, both my children are married now and I am a grandfather now,” he said.

According to him, he had been working in a hosiery factory in Ludhiana before 2001. “As it was very difficult to make both ends meet, I contacted a travel agent and paid ₹1 lakh to make arrangements to get into Lebanon through a donkey route via Jordan and Syria. It was very difficult to live and work there in a war-like environment in these years. I continued working in agricultural fields in Lebanon to feed my family back home,” he said.

After losing his passport, he contacted the Indian embassy in Lebanon several times but received no positive response as he had entered Lebanon illegally due to which the embassy didn’t had any record of his immigration. “People interested to go abroad should follow the legal route to avoid inconvenience in untoward situations,” he said.

“My biggest sorrow is that I lost my mother and brother who waited for me in these years,” he said.

Seechewal hailed officials of the ministry of external affairs and also the Indian embassy for facilitating Gurtej’s return.