Expatriates registering in the regularization programme have filled up the entire Galolhu stadium.

The economic ministry decided to move the registration from the Civil Service Commission to Galolhu Stadium, due to the high number of expatriates queuing up and crowding the streets.

Appointments to register in the regularization programme have been issued since 09:00 am today, and are to continue later at night as well.

More than 3000 expatriates had gathered at Galolhu stadium on Saturday morning.

Action will be taken against undocumented workers who do not register under the regularization programme. The government plans to keep a record of undocumented workers who, for whatever reason, cannot undergo regularization. Furthermore, the ministry will seek out undocumented workers to register them in the regularization programme.

Back in January, Immigration revealed that there are a total of 144,607 expatriate workers in the Maldives, out of which 63,000 are undocumented.

While operations have been held to minimize the undocumented migrants, authorities started the regularization programme last month following President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's decision to implement a policy on strengthening foreign labour regulations and address the issue of illegal employment of migrant workers.

In addition to the programme, the policy specifies ways to reinforce regulations on handling illegal employment of migrant workers, and on the issuance of work permits, as well as the formulation of a ‘National Task-force on Issues Related to Migrant Workers’.