Escaping From Kuwait During the Gulf War

On August 2, 1990, the Iraqi military invaded Kuwait City overnight, and its residents woke up to a city under occupation. The only airport was put on lockdown and the Iraqi military set up checkpoints on the city’s streets.

The US, the UK and Russia condemned the invasion, and some British and American citizens were taken as hostages. But the Indian government had no stake in the conflict, and around 165,000 Indian citizens living in Kuwait were caught up in a situation that didn’t involve their country.

This left the Indian government with a question that no government had ever had to face before: How do we evacuate tens of thousands of our citizens from a foreign country, all at once?

Today on “Kerning Cultures,” the story of one family’s escape from Kuwait during one of the largest government evacuations in history.

This episode was written and produced by Alex Atack and Shraddha Joshi; edited by Dana Ballout with support from Nadeen Shaker, Zeina Dowidar and Abde Amr; fact-checked by Shraddha Joshi; sound design by Alex Atack; and mixing by Mohamed Khreizat. Bella Ibrahim is our marketing manager, and “Kerning Cultures” is a Kerning Cultures Network production.

*[Fair Observer is a media partner of the Kerning Cultures Network. Click here for a full list of shows in English and Arabic.]

The views expressed in this post are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.