Assam: Migrant Workers Trapped in Bhutan Cross River to Return Home

Baksa, April 27, 2020:

Ten migrant labourers from Assam, who were stranded in neighbouring Bhutan, reached Baksa district of in the evening of Sunday, April 26. According to the migrants, they set off on foot at 4 am in the morning. Taking a shortcut to Baksa by crossing a river (Bornodi) and hills, they finally reached Kauli in Baksa in the evening around 2, tired and exhausted.

"We faced a lot of trouble on our return journey; our clothes got wet and heavy, so we had to shed some of them. We came after climbing hills, after crossing a river", said one of the migrants after reaching Assam.

Of the 10 migrants, 5 belong to the Sonitpur district while the others belonged to Baksa. Employed in Vangtar of Bhutan as labourers, the migrants decided to walk home after the re-opening of the sealed border seemed unlikely.

[Note: The migrants have been identified as follows:

From Sonitpur: Ramdayal Pait, Rupesh Urang, Paplu Bhumish, Kundan Munda, Amjan Khan

From Baksa: Maheshwar Biswas, Hiru Baishya, Akhil Biswas, Uday Baishya, Prabhas Bakshi]

However, the migrants returned from Bhutan were not given a rousing reception. Instead, the locals looked at them with suspicion amid the outbreak and were quick to inform the authorities. Soon, police personnel and health authorities reached the location and the rag-tag bunch of 10 were immediately shifted to a local school.

Then, arrangements were made for them to be quarantined at the Nagrijuli Model Hospital. Homewards voyages on foot of migrant labourers in India amid the uncertainty of the lockdown is not new. There are several such instances, in fact.

Recently, 4 penniless Assam labourers who were starting to feel the pangs of hunger in the midst of the lockdown called by the Government in a bid to “flatten the COVID curve”, walked home to Kokrajhar from Changsari, a distance of around 203 kms.

When medical staff were informed about the arrival of these labourers, a few personnel reached the site to inspect them, and discovered that the men, some of whom are middle-aged, are suffering following their ordeal. Some of them even had swollen legs. Now, these labourers do not whether to laugh or cry.

“Their condition is not good, they are in suffering. Perhaps they did not eat properly along the way. Because they walked for so long, some of them have swollen feet. Now, we will have to try and make them healthy again”, a medical personnel told us.

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