Commissioner of Police, Mohamed Hameed has stated that authorities are currently monitoring 24 locations where expatriated reside.

In an interview with RaajjeTV during its Covid-19 Coverage, the Police Commissioner noted that authorities shifted their focus on migrant workers once the community spread was confirmed in the Maldives capital, Malé City.

As such, he stressed that these migrant workers are at a higher risk of contracting the virus and spreading it among their communities due to the condition is which migrant workers are forced to reside in after being brought to the country as well as their difficult lifestyles.

Highlighting that authorities were successful in transferring a number of these expatriates to better living quarters temporarily, CP Hameed noted that officers are monitoring 24 vulnerable homes on a round-the-clock basis and that they have not received any complaints of a migrant worker having fled these locations.

However, he noted that authorities had faced difficulties in seeking out a number of expatriates that had tested positive for Covid-19 through random sampling, of recent.

In this regard, Hameed stated that frontline workers will be collecting full information, snapping a photo and tracing individuals after taking their samples, from now.

Stressing that there are several undocumented workers living in the Maldives, Hameed highlighted that even this has proven to be a challenge to the authorities.

Earlier, authorities had revealed that at a time the pandemic is sweeping steadily across the globe, the biggest challenge facing them in curbing the spread of the virus is managing migrant communities.

As part of the government’s efforts to provide better accommodation for migrant workers and ensure their safety, these 24 locations, have also been cordoned off.

About 1,500 migrant workers were residing in these regions, before some of them were transferred to facilities established by the government.