Bhubaneswar, Oct. 18: The Orissa government may arrive at an understanding with Andhra Pradesh to address the problems of labourers migrating to the southern state to work at construction sites and brick kilns.

More than six lakh labourers from the villages of Kalahandi, Balangir and Koraput (KBK) migrate to the cities of Andhra Pradesh every year working there in the unorganised sector. The majority works at brick kilns, where exploitation is rampant.

The labourers, who are mostly jobless farmhands, also go to states such as Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhatisgarh looking for greener pastures, but Andhra attracts the bulk of this force mainly because of its vicinity to Orissa.

Sources said lakhs of migrants from the poverty-stricken KBK region flocking to Nalgonda, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad looking for work at brick kilns or on construction sites, where little skill is required. The Orissa government remains worried about their well being. Hence the possibility of an understanding with Andhra Pradesh to monitor the movement of migrant labourers is being discussed. Concern about the condition of migrant workers has risen following a plethora of reports about their ill treatment at the hands of unscrupulous employers in Andhra Pradesh. There have also been cases of women being sexually exploited at the brick kilns and returning home pregnant.

Sources said the Orissa government, as of now, has but little control over the migrant labour trade which is largely illegal.

A bulk of this labour force goes outside Orissa with the help of some unlicensed labour contractors, who strike secret deals with brick kiln owners in the cities and villages of Andhra Pradesh. More often than not the labourers are cheated and end up doing forced labour.

“In most of the areas known for migration of labour, the government does not have proper records of workers going out. This makes monitoring impossible and the administration finds itself helpless once the migrants get into trouble with their employers,” said an official, adding that the government cannot hope to control the labour movement unless it succeeds in eliminating labour touts or middlemen.

These touts are unlicensed labour contractors, who entice poor labourers by making all kinds of promises and even advance payments on behalf of their prospective employers only to ditch them in the end.

In one such case, recently a group of minor boys made a fatal attack on the middleman, who had left them at the mercy of a cruel and violent employer in Maharashtra.