Joining the Chief Minister and Labour Minister in assurances of safety for migrant workers in the State is Kozhikode District Collector U.V. Jose who held an interactive meeting with a section of the workers in the district on Tuesday.
He urged the workers not to fall prey to the fake messages of threats being circulated in the social media and assured them that they were completely safe.
The meeting was held in the wake of the emerging reports that such messages had prompted workers from different States, especially West Bengal, to leave for their home-town in the past few days.
About 30,000 migrant labourers work and reside in the district. Some 500 persons, mostly employed in hotels and restaurants, might have left the city following the messages, the Collector said.
Mr. Jose urged the workers to inform their colleagues who had left, many of them without even collecting their wages, that there were no problems in the district or elsewhere in the State and that they should immediately return to work.
The presence of Kozhikode City Commissioner of Police S. Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar and Kozhikode Rural Superintendent of Police M.K. Purushotaman was also a solace for the workers. The migrant labourers who received any kind of threat could immediately seek police help, the Collector said. Mr. Jose also apprised them of the government schemes offered by the district administration to migrant workers to improve their conditions at their places of work and stay.
The Commissioner interacted with the workers and also assured them that the people of Kozhikode, like elsewhere in the State, were peace-loving people and that they need not fear about their safety. The fake messages, pictures and video clips being circulated in the WhatsApp groups would be probed and the mischief makers behind them would be nabbed, Mr. Mahesh Kumar said.
A preliminary probe revealed that the WhatsApp messages were circulated among three groups after a migrant worker of a beach hotel committed suicide. Audio clips, accompanied by some horrific pictures of dead bodies, were circulated in these groups warning the migrants of dire consequences if they did not leave the State.