Families of migrant workers torn between hope, despair
Times of India | 29 July 2025
12 Malda: In some homes, there's despair. In others, relief. A sense of dread hangs over families in Malda whose relatives have gone to work in other states. Jiyem Sk has been waiting for his son Amir to return from Bangladesh for a week. A migrant worker himself, Jiyem was in Bihar when he learned that his son had been hauled up and sent to Bangladesh on suspicion that he was an illegal immigrant.
Amir had gone to Rajasthan to work at a construction site in April. Local cops detained him. And even though he had his Aadhaar with him and his family in Malda sent more documents, the local police refused to believe Amir was a citizen. He was first taken to a police station. Then to jail. On July 22, a video surfaced in which Amir revealed that he was in Bangladesh's Ghumra. When the video reached his family, they approached local authorities in Bengal seeking help for his safe return.
On Saturday, the Kaliachak BDO and police, along with other officials, visited Jiyem's house at Jalalpur and assured him they would make all possible efforts to ensure Amir's return. Sources at Ghumra claimed he was taken to the local police station from his shelter. "Everyone has promised me help, but I can't rest until I speak to my son," Jiyem told TOI.
In other homes, there was relief amid reports of detained workers being released in Haryana, Delhi and other parts of the country.
On July 24, there was a complaint that seven workers of Raninagar under Harishchandrapur police station were detained by Gurgaon police. They were identified as Ajmal Hossain, Usman Ali, Lokman Ali, Manirul Islam, Sadikul Haque, Prakash Das and Abhijit Das, who were working as sweepers in Gurgaon.
On receiving the information, communication was established with the SHO of the Gurgaon police station concerned, both via telephone and email. Gurgaon police sent a formal verification request regarding the identity and nationality of the detained individuals. Subsequently, a thorough verification was conducted, and a detailed report with supporting testimonials was forwarded to the Faridabad commissioner of police, through the office of the Malda SP. Following discussions throughout the day, all seven were released on Sunday evening.