The Nilgiris district police stopped a lorry carrying 72 migrant workers who attempted to surreptitiously cross the Tamil Nadu border into Karnataka.
Police officials said that the migrants had been working as clothes sellers at Ernakulam in Kerala.
The could not stay in Kerala as they were not able to sell clothes or find any work for the last month, they told the police at the Kakkanallah checkpost in the Nilgiris.
They said they decided to try and walk across the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, allegedly walking more than 40 km before managing to find a truck driver who agreed to take them across the border and into Karnataka.
While the driver managed to easily cross the check-posts in Kerala, he was stopped by the Tamil Nadu police in Kakkanallah check post.
They found the men inside the container lorry and prevented the lorry from crossing the border.
The district police officials said the workers, all from Uttar Pradesh, were taken back to Gudalur, where they were given food and also underwent a medical check-up. “Special buses were arranged to take them back to Kerala,” said a top district police official.