Mangalore: A large number of migrant workers, mostly from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, stranded in Karnataka due to coronavirus COVID-19 lockdown, staged a protest at the Central Railway Station here in Mangalore on Friday.


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They had come to the station after learning that the Karnataka government would be operating special trains to their home states. The workers stayed put at the station and refused to disperse, despite appeals by police, who rushed to the spot.


The migrants said that they were stuck in the city without jobs, money and adequate food and that they were even willing to walk to their home states if the special trains were not operated immediately.


On Thursday, the Karnataka government decided to deploy special trains from May 8 to send back the workers to their homes and sought approval of nine states for the process. They were informed that Karnataka intended to run two trains a day to these states till May 15 for ferrying the thousands of migrant workers, stranded in the city and other districts due to the COVID-19 lockdown.


The migrant workers demanded the state government to take immediate measures and send them back to their homes in their native states.


Maintaining social distancing and covering their faces with masks, the workers were seen holding placards which read: "We want to go home Jharkhand, We want justice and we want to go home."


They appealed to the state government to arrange trains and buses to ferry them to their native places and threatened to walk home if denied transport.


Several protests have erupted in different parts of the country, such as West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Kerala, as stranded labourers took to the roads demanding to be sent back home.


The Ministry of Home Affairs had on May 1 issued an order to extend the ongoing lockdown by two more weeks from May 4 with some relaxations. 


However, the Centre allowed states to run special trains for bringing back migrant workers stranded in different parts of the country due to the lockdown back to their home.