Ministry of Economic Development has revealed that over 20,000 expatriates registered in the regularization programme for undocumented workers in the country, held in October.

Adding that work is currently underway to resolve the issue of undocumented workers in the country at the ministry, they revealed that the number of undocumented expatriates that were residing illegally in the Maldives reach over 20,000. This was revealed during the first round of the regularization programme which was opened up in October.

Highlighting that there are several hindrances in deporting such workers as they do not have documentation or work permits, let alone their passports on them, the ministry added that authorities require assistance from the Bangladeshi government.

While the Maldives Immigration earlier revealed that there is a total of 144,607 expatriate workers in the country out of the which 63,000 are undocumented, the government launched the regularization programme on 19 September.

The government warned of action that will be taken against undocumented workers who do not register under the programme. Further, it announced that a record of them who do not undergo the programme will be kept.

The programme was a result of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s decision to implement a policy on strengthening foreign labor regulations and to address the issue of an increasing number of cases in employment of migrant workers, illegally.

Further, the policy highlights ways to reinforce regulations on ways to handle illegal employment as well as the issuance of work permits and formulation of a ‘National Task-force on Issues Related to Migrant Workers’.