40,000 migrants in Kozhikode waiting to return home

Six more special trains to be operated for stranded workers

The special train service introduced by the government for the return of migrant labourers stranded following the national lockdown has so far benefited around 10,000 labourers in Kozhikode district. About 40,000 more people are now waiting to return home by making use of the service in the coming days.

Officials with the Labour Department say the actual number of migrant labourers stranded in different parts of the district is now around 75,000 based on the newly available data. It may go up again with the updation of registration data. Their number was earlier recorded as below 32,000 as many had evaded the compulsory registration process, officials said.

Within a week, six more special trains will be operated for registered migrant workers who want to leave for West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand. West Bengal residents are the majority among the migrant labourers who are temporarily settled in the district for odd jobs. About 7,000 more persons are expected to leave the district within a week using the special train services.

Members working under a district-level migrant workers’ welfare committee say the revised figure of migrant workers in Kozhikode district has been a matter of big surprise for them for many reasons. According to them, the strange fact was that more than 50% of the total migrant workers in the district had been staying here without registering their names.

An official attached to the committee said there were even labour camps which accommodated about 400 migrant workers at a time without any facilities. It would have been a very risky affair if the labourers in such camps had contracted any communicable disease, the official says.