MIGRANTS FROM UP STRANDED IN CAMBODIA FACE STARVATION, SEEK HELP
LUCKNOW : Nearly 150 migrant workers from eastern Uttar Pradesh working in Cambodia are currently stuck in capital Phnom Penh with little money and food while battling Covid-19 restrictions in that country. They and their families back home have now appealed to the government to help them return.
The workers, natives of rural areas of Gorakhpur, Deoria, Sant Kabir Nagar and Maharajganj districts in Uttar Pradesh, went to Cambodia in October of 2019, where a majority of them earned a living as street vendors while a few others worked as labourers, their family said.
On Sunday, the stranded workers sent distress calls in video messages to their families and a Gorakhpur journalist.
“I arrived in Cambodia on October 8, 2019, while my elderly parents, wife and two children stayed back in the village. Twenty months have passed since. The family members have sold land and jewellery to send me money and have now run out of funds. I do not know when I
We are trying our best to get repatriation flight organised
DEVYANI KHOBRAGADE ,
ambassador of India to Cambodia
will be able to return home” said a video message sent by Upendra Singh, resident of Baraipar village in Gorakhpur district.
Cambodia saw a severe surge in Covid cases last month and while new infections have eased in the country, overall case numbers have gone past 25,000, from a 10th of that in early April.
Several others like Singh have also sent video messages claiming they have lost work due to a strict lockdown in Phnom Penh and are living in shanties and facing starvation.
They say local policemen do not allow movement in the red zone and the prices of edible items have skyrocketed. Claiming that they weren’t getting any assistance from the Indian embassy there, they have sought intervention by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Gorakhpur’s Lok Sabha MP Ravi Kishan.
Families of the stranded workers have also appealed to the authorities for help.
“We are concerned with the plight of all the people from the area, stuck in a foreign country. They are facing severe problems, however, the family is in debt and hapless. We hope Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath and MP, Ravi Kishan will work to bring all home, said Butai Yadav, a native of Satuabhar village in Gorakhpur. Yadav’s brother Hari Om is stuck in Cambodia.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Gorakhpur, Ravi Kishan says he has requested external affairs minister S Jaishankar to help arrange the return of the migrant workers. “The family members of the workers are undergoing mental trauma.
I will try my best till all 150 migrants return home. The ministry of external affairs will also do it’s best to bring back stranded workers to Gorakhpur,” Ravi Kishan said.
In a tweet on Monday evening, ambassador of India to Cambodia Devyani Khobragade said, “We are trying our best to get repatriation flight organized.”
Philippines and Cambodia banned entry of all travellers coming from India since April 29 this year after the second wave of Covid-19 swept India, led by a virulent double mutant variant (B.1617) of the virus. The last flight from Phnom Penh left for India on December 22 last year, a couple of months before the country was hit by its worst coronavirus outbreak in late February.
IN A TWEET ON MONDAY EVENING, AMBASSADOR OF INDIA TO CAMBODIA DEVYANI KHOBRAGADE SAID, “WE ARE TRYING OUR BEST TO GET REPATRIATION FLIGHT ORGANIZED.”