169 girls of Odisha's Kendrapara district working in a garments manufacturing factory of Kerala returned to their home state on Friday by a special flight arranged by actor Sonu Sood.

The girls from Rajnagar block of Kendrapara district and working in Ernakulam, arrived at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar by an Air Asia flight from Cochin International Airport. Along with them, 9 other migrant workers from Odisha who worked in another company were also on the same flight.

The girls had earlier posted a photo on social media urging Odisha authorities to evacuate them from Kerala as their factory had been closed due to lockdown. "Our owner had stopped paying us salaries and we want to go home at any cost. We have been stuck in our rooms since the factory shut down," the girls in the video said with folded hands. The girls said they had resigned from the factory over fears of being infected by Covid-19 and wanted to go back.