Maldivian travelers now flagged after Commonwealth exit: MP Musthafa

Thimarafushi constituency MP Mohamed Musthafa said Maldivian travelers are ‘pestered’ at the immigration services of various countries after its withdrawal from the Commonwealth.

“Different airports have begun pestering Maldivians after it left the commonwealth, even Singapore keeps [us] by at least an hour” MP Musthafa said in a tweet - typed out in Dhivehi - on Tuesday.

A responder said he believes Maldives is on a Singaporean immigration watchlist.

In another immediately following his first tweet, Musthafa said ‘pointless policies’ have restricted the rights of individuals and thus face ‘days of difficulty and restriction’.

MP Musthafa maintained that the decision was made independently by the government with no questioning or scrutiny of public opinion.

On the 13th of October, the Maldives left the Commonwealth after the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) placed Maldives on its formal agenda in September 2016, expressing disappointment at the lack of progress in the priority areas identified earlier by the group. It further noted that the group would consider options, including suspension "in the absence of substantive progress across the priority areas".

A report released by Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) recommended that it ‘suspend or expel’ the Maldives if it thwarts any ‘further democratic values’.

The government considered this to be a political move to exploit state that ‘lacks material power’.

“The Commonwealth Secretariat seem to be convinced that the Maldives, because of the high and favourable reputation that the country enjoys internationally, and also perhaps because it is a small state that lacks material power, would be an easy object that can be used, especially in the name of democracy promotion, to increase the organisation’s own relevance and leverage in international politics”.

In December, on international Human Rights Day, President Abdulla Yameen said the Maldives had made considerable accomplishments in ‘meeting human rights standards set by UN conventions'.

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), a partner of the opposition coalition Musthafa is aligned with, had then said the decision isolates the Maldives and tarnishes it reputation internationally.

“President Yameen has made the Maldives a very isolated place. This is an absolute despotic move, which says much about the Yameen regime and its political posturing and disregard for international or public opinion” a statement from the MDP following the decision further said.

The Amnesty International’s annual report on the state of human rights worldwide, where it lists-in-detail areas of concern in different nations, marked such issues with the government, parliament, and the justice system.

READ MORE: 2016 human rights report flags Maldives