The latest incident occurred at Surat’s under-construction Diamond Bourse.

A third incident of protest in less than a month by hundreds of migrant workers in Gujarat’s Surat city demanding that they be allowed to return their native States transpired on April 28.

The latest incident occurred at Surat’s under-construction Diamond Bourse, where migrants damaged several vehicles and threw stones damaging glass windows at the construction site.

As the crowd turned violent, the authorities called the police to control the situation. On reaching the site, the police tried to appeal to the migrants to remain calm.

Also read: COVID-19 situation especially serious in Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad, Chennai: Home Ministry

In a similar incident in Dindoli of Surat, hundreds of migrants labourers protested on the railway tracks, demanding that they be allowed to go to their villages in their States. Stones were thrown at policemen who tried to push the protesters into their homes, asking them to stay indoors.

Ever since the lockdown was announced, Surat, a hub of migrants with more than a million labourers coming from over a dozen States from across the country, has been witnessing incidents of migrants turning violent as authorities are trying to keep them from leaving for their native States — mostly Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.

Lately, the State authorities along with neighbouring States like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have started allowing movement of migrant workers to their home States.