Why are so many Indians being forced to work in war zones?
Pat Nibin Maxwell moved from India to Israel at the height of the Gaza conflict in December last year, leaving behind a pregnant wife and a four-year-old daughter. The decision to relocate to another country in search of work was not an easy one, particularly to such a restive region.
It was a choice driven by “financial reasons”, his cousin Jose Dennis tells The Independent. Maxwell was among hundreds of Indian youths taking up blue-collar jobs in dangerous locations, including Russia’s frontline with Ukraine, driven by what an economist describes as “extreme desperation” due to the lack of well-paid employment in India.
On 4 March, Maxwell’s family were told on a call that the 31-year-old was grievously injured in an anti-tank missile strike on a poultry farm in northern Israel. “He was hospitalised along with two other Indians,” Dennis says. “Later, we learnt that he has died.”
The decision to take up work in conflict zones comes with high risks despite the
