Meet the Malayali who is selling groceries to Iraqis on Saudi-Kuwait border

Dammam: One will find Keralites everywhere in the globe. This saying holds true, no matter what. Otherwise, who would have imagined spotting a grocery shop run by a Malayali on the Saudi-Kuwait border.

According to The Times of India, Rajeev, a Malayali from Kannur district, runs a grocery shop in the desert regions of Hafar Al Batin.

Around 25 Iraqi families are currently residing in this settlement. Notably, these are the families which had migrated to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War.

The 1991 Gulf War produced between two and three million refugees from Iraq, as per the Migration Policy Institute.

Many of the refugees shifted to other towns once the Saudi government sanctioned citizenship.

Those who stayed back in the desert, the government arranged small cottages and schools.

The daily reported that those residing on the border settlement have no air conditioners. The topmost luxury they have is owning air coolers.

As per Rajeev, the Iraqis in the village work as shepherds as they do not have legal documents to travel to distant places.