A group of 10 migrant workers from Murshidabad, who had spent quarantine in Jharkhand, were allegedly dropped off near the Birbhum border on Sunday night at a time there is a ban on inter-state travel.

As the Jharkhand government did not allegedly communicate with their counterparts in Bengal, the labourers were stopped at the border and had to spend the night under the open sky.

The residents of Raghunathganj in Murshidabad had spent 24 days at a quarantine centre in Fatehpur, Jharkhand. The group was allegedly dropped off 2km from the Bengal border in Birbhum’s Rajnagar on Sunday night.

A certificate issued to the workers by Jharkhand states that they had been quarantined from April 1 to 25.

“We were dropped off 2km away from the Birbhum border with an assurance that Bengal would allow us to enter if we showed the certificate. We requested them to hand over us to Bengal police but they left us on the border and went back,” said Tahidul Islam, a migrant labourer.

Tahidul and his nine colleagues then walked up to the Rajnagar border, but Bengal police stopped them.

On Monday morning, the workers took a 20km detour through paddy fields and sneaked into Bengal near Pathar Chapuri in Birbhum. “Our relatives in Murshidabad came on motorbikes on Monday afternoon to take us home,” said Sabirul Sheikh, another migrant worker.

A senior police officer in Birbhum said: “Inter-state transportation is completely banned. Jharkhand government did not contact us officially about those workers. So, the local police did not allow them in.”Birbhum district magistrate Moumita Godara Basu had informed the local Rajnagar BDO when she learnt about the migrant labourer.

“I went to the spot where they were reportedly staying. However, I could not find anyone. They might have left the place before our team had reached,” said Alok Moulik, the BDO of Rajnagar.