The country’s national airline, Maldivian has evacuated a group of Bangladeshi nationals from the Maldives.

The airline revealed on Saturday, that the group of 200 Bangladeshi nationals were repatriated through a flight bound to Dhaka, from the Velana International Airport.

The government of Maldives has been repatriating undocumented expatriate workers through a programme announced by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

This is being done through collaborative efforts from the foreign ministry, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Bangladeshi High Commission in the Maldives.

The total number of repatriated undocumented Bangladeshi workers living illegally in the Maldives, crossed 3,000 a few days into the beginning of June, revealed the Foreign Ministry.

The global Covid-19 pandemic has been infecting over thousands of Bangladeshi nationals nationwide, since it surfaced in the country on March 7.

Speaking during a sitting of the People’s Majlis, the Minister of Economic Development, Fayyaz Ismail has since said that the government aims to repatriate 20,000 expatriate workers, willing to return home, within the ongoing year.

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 global Covid-19 pandemic, due to their lifestyles. So far, over 1,354 Bangladeshi nationals residing in the island nation have tested positive for the virus.

Due to unpaid wages, groups of expatriate workers have been protesting across the country, and the protests have been escalating of recent.