Parliament’s Committee on National Security & Foreign Relations has revealed that there are close to 105,000 undocumented expatriates living in the Maldives, illegally.

Chair of the committee, Ibrahim Shareef revealed at a committee meeting to investigate the matter of undocumented expatriates in the country, that statistics show that undocumented migrant workers in the country reach between 60,000 and 150,000.

Relevant authorities face several challenges in resolving the issues regarding undocumented migrant workers living in the country illegally, who do not have passports on them.

As such, authorities are unable to create even 10 passports a week, after acquiring their information and reaching out to their respective countries.

The greatest number of migrant workers living illegally in the country is from Bangladesh. Most of those who do not have their passports on them are also from Bangladesh, revealed Shareef.

Earlier, it was revealed that action will be taken against undocumented workers who do not register under the regularization programme carried out by the government.

In January, the Immigration Office revealed that there is a total of 144,607 expatriate workers in the country.