At least 500 migrant workers returning home have been left stranded at Baxirhat in Cooch Behar district on the Assam border as they are denied entry by the neighbouring states.

“We are from Assam and want to return home. However, the authorities in Assam (on the other side of Baxirhat is Dhubri district of Assam) are not allowing us to enter. We are living in tents and having food provided by the Bengal government,” said Abdul Jalil Sheikh, one of the stranded workers.

Administrative sources said the tents which had been arranged for the workers could accommodate hardly 250 people if they maintained social distancing.

Sources in Dhubri district said they would let the stranded workers enter Assam, but in phases.

Thirty residents of Lakhimpur and Tezpur in Assam, who are students and professionals and had been stuck in Siliguri, were sent home on Monday with the help of the Congress.

Sankar Malakar, the Congress MLA of Matigara-Naxalbari, made the arrangements for their journey. “They have left in a bus for Assam. We took the initiative to help them and will bear the entire expenditure of their travel,” Malakar said.