42 Unions and NGOs Demand Safe Passage For Migrant Labourers Returning to West Bengal List of 9090 Migrant Workers Submitted

Press Release | 04.05.2020

42 Unions and NGOs Demand Safe Passage For Migrant Labourers Returning to West Bengal

List of 9090 Migrant Workers Submitted

It is estimated that about 12 lakh workers from West Bengal are working in other states. Kerala alone is supposed to be housing 6 lakhs. Yet the State Government has arranged for two trains only (of which only one is from Kerala) and a few hundred buses. The Central Government has completely washed its hands off the matter. It has already been 40 days since the nationwide lockdown has been announced, with the woes of the stranded migrant labourers increasing with each passing day.

Today, 42 trade unions, people’s organisations and NGOs got together to issue letters to the West Bengal Chief Minister and Prime Minister asking for safe return of the workers. Their main demands are that the transportation arrangements need to be increased manifold immediately to bring workers back. The expenses for the return journey of the migrant labourers from other states to their homes by special trains and other transport, including food and water during the journey, should be met by the Central and State Governments, as migrants have no resources at all at the moment. Workers should be registered for the journey through simple processes. The letter also asks for mandatory health check ups, well equipped quarantine and isolations facilities. A ‘Sneher Paras’ desk should be made available in the station premises to all returnees to facilitate immediate registration for the one-time assistance to migrant labourers. Inter district transportation for stranded labourers within the state should also be arranged through state owned transport corporations.

Since the beginning of the COVID and lockdown crisis, several organisations who are signatories to this statement have also set up helplines for migrant workers and have supported 9090 workers in various ways through these helplines. A compiled list of these 9090 labourers from West Bengal who are stranded in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharasthra, Karnataka, Delhi, Haryana and other places  is being sent to the authorities with the demand to arrange for their transport, quarantine and one time aid under Sneher Paras.