Twelve migrant workers from Agra heading home to East Midnapore were stopped at Birbhum’s Mallarpur on Friday when they arrived there following a circuitous journey through Bihar and Bengal over the past four days during which they were hauled from one place to another.

The detour happened as officials in Agra had advised them to board a Shramik Special train to Barauni in Bihar.

The migrant workers, who used to work at a factory near Agra that produced nylon sacks, had on May 11 decided to return to their homes in East Midnapore’s Tamluk as they had run out of resources.

“Officials in Agra asked us to board a train to Bihar, from where our home would be close. On May 12 we reached Bihar’s Barauni station, which is nowhere near our home,” said Prosenjit Pramanik, 30, one of the migrants.

They said police in Barauni packed them into a bus and sent them 192km away to Katihar in Bihar. The cops, the workers said, had assured them that arrangements would be made to send them home from there. But from Katihar they were transported to Kishanganj in Bihar with the same assurance.

“It was May 13 and we waited for hours in Kishanganj to return home. The next morning we were sent to North Dinajpur’s Dalkhola. The local administration asked us to board a truck on the assurance that it would reach us home. After travelling 30km, the driver told us to get off. We have been walking since then,” Pramanik said.

They decided to walk the remaining 150km as they were running out of funds.

Tamluk is around 1,250km from Agra, but the labourers traversed 1,600km to reach Birbhum and home still remains 250km away.

On Friday, a group of local people spotted them at Mallarpur and informed the police. Birbhum police took the migrants to a local relief camp.

Birbhum district magistrate Moumita Godara Basu said: “We will arrange a bus to send the 12 migrants home.”