Returned to his country after 23 years, Punjabi trapped in Lebanon after losing passport reached home | News India – ..

Ludhiana man returns from Lebanon: When Gurtej Singh went to Lebanon to earn a living for his family, he did not know that he would have to wait 23 years to return home. Gurtej Singh, a resident of Mattewara village in Ludhiana, went to Lebanon in 2001 with five-six people from his village. After the war broke out in Lebanon in 2006, the rest returned home, but Gurtej Singh was stranded there after losing his passport.

Gurtej Singh, now 55, said he went to Lebanon in 2001 to work to improve his family’s condition. “When the war broke out, I wanted to come to India. I went to the embassy several times but was asked to produce some proof to get a duplicate passport,” he told PTI on Saturday.

He finally returned to India on September 6 after AAP Rajya Sabha member Balbir Singh Seechewal raised the issue with the Ministry of External Affairs. MP Balbir Seechewal said he raised the matter with the concerned authorities, following which Singh was provided a copy of his lost passport and was finally able to return.

Gurtej Singh admitted that he was constantly afraid of getting caught due to the loss of his passport. He said that he always wondered how he would come to India without a passport. His family in India also tried to bring him back, but to no avail.

He said that if he did not get a ‘duplicate’ passport, he felt that he would hardly be able to meet his family. Gurtej Singh said, “I was thinking how I would go back to India. He used to work as a laborer in a vegetable farm in Lebanon. Before going to Lebanon, he worked in a sweater manufacturing factory in Ludhiana.

Singh said that when he went to Lebanon, his elder son was six years old while the younger son was three years old. Now my elder son has a six-year-old son. His younger son is not married yet.