Thirteen years after the first Gulf war brought misery to thousands of Keralites working in the Arabian Gulf region, the imminent United States attack on Iraq has once again instilled fears of social insecurity and economic deprivation in many families in Kerala.

Nearly half of more than three million Indians working in various Gulf countries are from Kerala, and many believe a prolonged war in the region would force many of them to pack their bags and return to India.

Indian Airlines and Air India are ready to evacuate the tens of thousands of Indians from the region as soon as the need arises.

People who have already returned from countries like Kuwait are unsure as to when they could go back.

"Even if I go back, I am not certain whether I will get my job back," says N Ravindran, a civil engineer working with a construction company in Kuwait, told rediff.com.

Ravindran and his family came back from Kuwait on Monday.

"I do not want to go back to Kuwait till the crisis in the region blows over," he says reminiscing the trouble he underwent during the first Gulf war in 1991.

"I lost my car, belongings and bank accounts after Iraq attacked Kuwait in 1990. I returned empty-handed when Indian Airlines evacuated people like us."

"The war in Iraq may perhaps not affect Kuwait. But I did not want to take a risk this time," he said.

During the first Gulf war, India evacuated a record 111,700 of its nationals. Officials in the Non-Resident Keralites Affairs department said that when a war erupts in Iraq, India's evacuation plans should mainly concentrate on Kuwait, as the emirate would bear the immediate brunt if American warplanes hit Iraq.

According to John Mathew, chairman of a Kuwait-based business conglomerate Arabi Enertech KSC, evacuation of Indians from Kuwait and other Gulf countries would become difficult if the war gets nasty.

In 1991, Mathew was one among those who helped the Indian government evacuate thousands of Indians stranded in Kuwait. "I was in fact the last Indian to leave Kuwait," Mathew, whose company employs more than 1,000 Indians in Kuwait alone, told rediff.com.

Soon after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, India closed down its mission in Kuwait leaving the expatriates to their fate, Mathew recalls.

"Indian expatriates had to drive down to Baghdad and fly out from there. We had to arrange everything," says Mathew.

The industrialist points out that in case of a prolonged and full-fledged war, the only feasible way to evacuate Indians from Kuwait on a mass scale would be through Saudi Arabia.

"Kuwait has only one small airport. It cannot handle airlifting of passengers on a massive scale because we are talking about operating a few thousand flights within a short period," Mathew pointed out.

In 1990, there were only about 170,000 Indians in Kuwait whereas, government estimates say that, this time there are about double that number.

Since people from Kerala constitute the bulk of the Indians in the Gulf countries -- especially Kuwait -- their families back home are on tenterhooks, keeping a tab on 'war news'.

Thomas Kurien, a college professor in Kochi, said that his two sons and a daughter are working in Bahrain.

"I talk to them daily and they have told me that there is nothing to worry for now. I know Bahrain will not be affected by the US war on Iraq. But who knows what will happen in the long term," Kurien asks.

Thousands of families in Kerala live on the remittances that their near and dear ones send from various Gulf countries. Official estimates say Keralites working in the Gulf send a whopping Rs 10 billion (Rs 1,000 crore) every month to their families in India.

"That is the reason why a conflict in the Gulf always throws up social and economic concerns in Kerala," L Srinivasan, an economic analyst with a local securities company, pointed out.