Five migrant workers, including three women, were killed in Uttar Pradesh in two separate accidents on highways on Monday, officials have said. At least 50 migrants - left stranded without jobs due to coronavirus lockdown - have died in the last 10 days while trying to return to their homes.
Three migrant women workers were killed and at least 12 were injured when their truck overturned after a tyre burst on the Jhansi-Mirzapur highway in Uttar Pradesh last night. The group of 17 had started walking from Delhi to return to their villages in eastern UP and the truck driver had agreed to give them a ride, said, officials. "The truck overturned after a tyre burst. Those injured have been taken to a hospital and four of them are critical. The group started their journey from Delhi," said a senior police officer.

In Unnao, about 65 km from Lucknow, two migrants were killed and 23 were injured yesterday evening when they were headed to Azamgarh from Delhi in a truck. The accident was reported on Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

On Saturday, 26 labourers were killed, more than 30 were injured when two trucks collided in Auraiya district, about 180 km from state capital Lucknow. The road accident, which led to an outpouring of condolences nationwide, prompted the Yogi Adityanath government to seal the state's borders.

The Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered the district officials to stop migrants and their families from entering the state on foot, cycles or trucks, arrange food and shelter for them and provide buses for their journey.

The next morning, hundreds of migrants were stopped at the border districts in UP by police amid protests.

Heartbreaking visuals have been capturing the misery of labourers and their families ever since countrywide shutdown left them jobless away from their homes. Many of them also died as they tried covering hundreds of kilometers on foot.

Other stories of sufferings which surfaced during these terrible times are the instances of dumped migrants. With states not arranging sufficient vehicles for transport, already truck drivers are charging them exorbitantly but recently workers were dumped as some of the health issues or simply sue to sheer greed of the truck drivers-Recently Internet went tizzy as users shared updates about a photograph that had gone viral a couple of days back. It showed a young migrant labourer, who was dumped along the roadside by fellow travelers in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district after falling sick during a journey from Gujarat to Uttar Pradesh in a truck.

A photograph of a distraught Yaqoob, sitting by the roadside while cradling the head of a visibly ill Ramcharan in his lap, had gone viral on social media over the weekend.According to Yaqoob, both he and Ramcharan worked together in a weaving unit in Surat. They had taken a truck along with several others to go to their village in Basti district of Uttar Pradesh.

However, on the way, Ramcharan fell ill and since he had a fever, the fellow travelers suspected him to be infected with COVID-19 and decided to dump him on the Kolaras bypass on Shivpuri-Jhansi highway on Friday afternoon.

Yaqoob, who had also paid for the trip, decided to stay back with his friend whose condition was deteriorating. He cried as he sat on the Kolaras bypass, urging people to help.

Some social workers helped and took them to a local hospital, from where Ramcharan was referred to the Shivpuri district hospital.

He was put on a ventilator, but died that night.

Story Input: NDTV