Over 3,200 undocumented Bangladeshi national residing illegally in the Maldives have been repatriated through the government-initiated evacuation exercise of undocumented workers in the country.

In a publication on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that a total of 3,269 undocumented Bangladeshi workers in the country have been sent back home up until Saturday.

187 undocumented Bangladeshi workers were repatriated on Saturday alone.

These workers were sent on a flight of the country’s national airline, Maldivian, bound to Dhaka, Bangladesh.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced that over 1,500 undocumented migrant workers will be repatriated from the Maldives, during a national address in May, amid the global Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

After the announcement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Economic Development began collaborating to repatriate the thousands of undocumented Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally in the Maldives.

Up until Saturday, the highest number of confirmed cases in the Maldives have been of Bangladeshi nationals, at 1,257 which is 52.16 percent of the total case count; 2,410.

Bangladeshi nationals are forced to reside in congested living spaces in large groups, after being brought into the country and are often left unsupervised. Due to this, they have been classified as vulnerable to the infection, due to their lifestyles.