Coronavirus Update:Centre tells states to seal borders in view of migrants’ exodus

Centre has instructed states to strictly enforce the lockdown by sealing their borders to movement of people in view of the exodus of the migrant workforce from different states. The government also announced strict enforcement of several other measures to deal with the humanitarian crisis.

Senior home ministry official said in the view of the movement of migrant workers seen over the last few days states and UTs have been strictly instructed to seal the state and district borders effectively and to only allow the movement of essential goods and not of people. She said the home ministry had issued a notice in this regard.

“States and UTs have been instructed to effectively seal the borders of states and districts to prevent the movement of people. Only movement of goods is allowed,” said Punya Salila Shrivastava, joint secretary, ministry of home affairs.

She, however, added that the migrant labourers who had already left their workplaces and were on their way home, will be allowed to reach their destinations, where they will be quarantined for a period of 14-days as per the existing protocol. The state governments have been asked for strict enforcement of these directions.

She added that the district officials including the district magistrates, deputy commissioners, police chiefs will be personally held responsible for implementation.

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Shrivastava said instructions to implement the following steps have been issued to states and UTs.

1. Provision of food and shelter for stranded migrants using the fund made available to state disaster response funds of different states and UTs

2. Mandatory two week quarantine for migrant labourers who have already left for their homes.

3. To ensure that all employers pay full wages for the shutdown period to workers at their workplace.

4. To ensure that the workers are not asked for a month’s rent or asked to vacate the tenements by their landlords.

The fresh directives have been issued to states after similar requests were made by home minister Amit Shah on Friday. On Saturday, a sea of migrant labourers was seen at the two interstate bus depots on Delhi-UP border, struggling to catch a ride home.

The scenes sparked fears that the movement could prove counter-productive to the lockdown measures and social distancing efforts, crucial to prevent the progress of Sars-Cov-2 into stage3- the community transmissions phase.

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The migrants are being ferried to their destinations in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by buses arranged by Yogi Adtiyanath government.