As there are still many reports coming of migrant labourers walking on-foot to reach their native villages amid lockdown, many of them are meeting with accidents with each passing day. On Thursday night six migrants were killed in three accidents at different places in Uttar Pradesh, when they were just few kilometres away from their home towns.
Three migrant labourers who were walking from Gujarat to reach their village in Uttar Pradesh got killed on road in an accident which took place at Barabanki, about 100 kms away from their village. While four more people sustained grave injuries and are undergoing treatment at Lucknow hospital, reported NDTV.
In yet another accident involving migrant workers, one labourer who was coming from Maharashtra got killed when a truck he was travelling in turned turtle after losing control. Thirty-two other people who too were sitting in the truck also got seriously injured.
While in Jalaun, two more migrant workers were also reported to have died.
Road accidents involving migrants have been on a rise as the workers have resorted to desperate means to reach home amidst the lockdown imposed to curb the Coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier, on Thursday, as many as eight migrant workers were killed and nearly 50 others injured when the bus in which they were travelling collided with a truck near Guna town in Madhya Pradesh in the wee hours of Thursday.
The truck was travelling from Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh with around 70 labourers when the accident happened.
This came hours after six migrants were killed and two injured after allegedly being run over by a state transport bus while they were walking towards Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh late on Wednesday night.
The victims were migrant workers from Bihar and were walking home.
The bus was not carrying any passengers at the time of the accident.
On Tuesday, four migrants died in separate accidents in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
On Saturday night, at least six migrant labourers were killed and 14 others injured when a truck in which they were travelling overturned in Madhya Pradesh’s Narsinghpur district.
On May 8, 16 migrants, who were sleeping on the railway tracks while returning to their native places in Madhya Pradesh amid the Coronavirus-induced lockdown, were crushed to death after they were run over by a goods train between Maharashtra’s Jalna and Aurangabad
Amid the nationwide lockdown, thousands of daily wagers and other migrants have undertaken epic journeys to reach home — walking, cycling and hitching rides when they could — in the absence of any public transport.
The nationwide lockdown, which began on March 25, was first extended till April 14, then till May 3 and finally till May 17 with a few relaxations built in. The unprecedented move to stem the spread of COVID-19 triggered possibly the biggest movement of people since Partition.
According to a report by SaveLIFE Foundation, 30 per cent of the victims of road accidents over the course of the two phases of the nationwide lockdown between March 24 and May 3 have been migrants.
Despite the Centre allowing special trains for stranded migrants who wish to return to their native places, the sheer numbers are overwhelming and many of them are taking the unofficial route of private vehicles or are trekking for hundreds of kilometres in the summer heat.