Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail has revealed that 837 expatriate workers have requested repatriation.
Minister Fayyaz has stated that Bangladesh Civil Aviation has temporarily banned any expatriate workers residing Maldives to enter the country, and due to that, the repatriation has been delayed.
In addition to that only 130 expatriate workers have the passport and other relevant documents. Other either does not have any document or has an expired passport.
The Ministry is working with the Bangladesh Embassy to get the relevant documents of requested expatriate workers.
Minister has also noted that foreign ministry has discussed the issue with the Bangladesh foreign ministry and with the support of Bangladesh government, they will proceed with the repatriation as soon as Bangladesh ban on its airways lifts.
Minister Fayyaz has also stated that MNDF, Police, and Immigration are working on transferring expatriates living congested spaces to a better environment. Also, with the moratorium released on 19th September 2019, many efforts have been made to solve the issue of illegal expatriates.
After the moratorium was released only 1362 unskilled laborers and 38 skilled laborers have entered the country.
The ministry also predicts that there are more than 20,000 unregistered expatriates in Maldives with most of them residing in Male without any passport or relevant documents.
More than 40,000 expatriates have been registered as working in Maldives illegally.
