Parliament’s committee on national security and foreign relations has decided to summon the Controller of Immigration and officials from the Maldives Police Service (MPS), over the decision to deport a Bangladeshi suspected of being engaged in money laundering.

Two Bangladeshi nationals were deported by authorities last month over serious allegations. While Abu Hanif was deported on September 14, it was later revealed that he was suspected of money laundering. The second suspect, M D Shafiqul “Master” Islam was deported on September 13 and is suspected of “illegally recruiting foreigners” and conducting illegal businesses.

Villimalé constituency MP Ahmed Usham proposed to summon the officials at a committee meeting held on Sunday, and the members decided to send them a summon notice for October 15.

Both the immigration and police have been criticized over the decision to expel them from the country “in a rush and without an investigation.”

Immigration Controller, Mohamed Ahmed Hussain told RaajjeMV last week that the department was not informed of the extent of Hanif’s crimes when he was deported, adding that they were only made aware of Hanif’s crimes after he was deported from the country.

Following the backlash, the controller assured that they will investigate such individuals -together with the police- before expelling them from the country “from now.”

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