Mass exodus sparks coronavirus concerns in India
Police officers stand by as migrant workers scramble inside a bus station in Ghaziabad, India, on Saturday, March 28.
Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters

Mass exodus sparks coronavirus concerns in India

Updated 1733 GMT (0133 HKT) March 30, 2020

Police officers stand by as migrant workers scramble inside a bus station in Ghaziabad, India, on Saturday, March 28.
Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters

Tens of thousands of migrant workers fled India's largest cities this weekend, looking to return to their rural homes after a nationwide lockdown left them without jobs or pay.

The lockdown was put in place to try to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. But there is concern that the migrants' mass exodus may have done the opposite.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged all states to seal their borders to stop the virus being imported into rural areas. Officials are now scrambling to find migrant workers who had already returned to small towns and villages across the country, in order to quarantine them for 14 days.

Every year, more than 9 million migrant workers move from India's rural areas to large population centers to find work at construction sites or factories, sending money back to their hometowns and villages.

Migrant workers try to board a crowded bus in Ghaziabad on Sunday, March 29. The state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana arranged for hundreds of buses to ferry migrants home, causing chaotic scenes as thousands descended upon stations trying to claw their way onto buses.
Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Migrant workers and their families board an overcrowded passenger train in Mumbai on March 21. Many workers had already left India's big cities before this weekend.
Prashant Waydande/Reuters
A migrant worker carries a child as they walk along a road in New Delhi.
Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
Crowds of migrant workers wait to board buses outside New Delhi.
Yawar Nazir/Getty Images
People try to hail a bus in New Delhi.
Altaf Qadri/AP
A migrant worker attempts to board an overcrowded train in Mumbai.
Prashant Waydande/Reuters
A laborer rests on the outskirts of Prayagraj en route to his village. With India's rail network temporarily shut, many had no choice but to try walking hundreds of miles home.
Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP
Migrant workers walk home from New Delhi.
Manish Swarup/AP
A migrant worker carries her belongings along a roadside in New Delhi.
Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
Workers collect food being handed out near the Anand Vihar Bus Terminus in New Delhi.
Amal KS/Hindustan Times/Getty Images
People hang on to a door of a moving bus on the outskirts of New Delhi.
Adnan Abidi/Reuters
The child of a migrant worker sleeps alongside a highway after the family failed to catch a bus.
Adnan Abidi/Reuters
A laborer's family is silhouetted in New Delhi as they journey to their village by foot.
Altaf Qadri/AP