Former Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia announced on Monday that he had offered his unfinished apartment to migrant workers in Lumsey, Tdong in Sikkim, to provide them with shelter amid the 21-day lockdown of India, The Quint reported.

Bhutia, in a video shared by the Quint , mentioned that how India is gripped with the crisis of migrant workers who have nowhere to go as the government has ordered the sealing of all State and national borders. He said that the migrant workers are the ones who have really suffered in this lockdown.

The 43-year-old player added, “Yesterday, we had thousands of them (migrant workers) lined up at the Sikkim border trying to cross. What I could see what a lot of them don’t have a place to stay. I saw that the friends of labourers working in my building had nowhere to go, so I told them to come and stay in the building. I’m sure there will be many more like them. So I offered my unfinished building.”

Bhutia, who is stuck in Siliguri and away from his family in Kolkata, was in transit when Prime Minister Modi announced of the lockdown last week.

He said: “I was returning from Kolkata and due to this lockdown, now I am here (Siliguri). So I am coordinating everything from here. The building can accommodate up to 100 people. It has five floors. Already 10 workers are staying there. We are providing them food. We have asked the local government to support us.”

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