2 trucks collide killing 23 Indian migrant workers

At least 23 migrant workers in India have been killed in a truck crash around Nothern India on Saturday while trying to return home despite the nationwide lockdown order.

The accident had reportedly taken place at the early hours of the day as the truck bearing the migrants was said to have collided with another truck stationary by a roadside eatery in the Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh state.

So far, 23 deaths and 35 injured persons have been recorded, officials and rescue operators have confirmed, with majority of the migrants hailing from the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Although the UP’s Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath had on Friday ordered bureaucrats and police officers to make ferries, buses and taxis available to convery migrants across the states to their hometowns, hundreds of urban Indian migrant labourers have been seen setting out on foot or hitchhiking behind trucks in attempts to return home.

Read also: Zambia reopens border with Tanzania after Covid-19 closure

On May 13, Six migrants walking to their homes in Bihar were crushed to death by a speeding truck in Muzaffarnagar with three others sustaining serious injuries.

On May 8, a train ran through a group of migrants sleeping on the tracks, killing 16, in western Maharashtra state.

Meanwhile, Coronavirus infections in India has exceeded China’s as the figures are currently at 85,940 with 2,753 deaths recorded so far.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now