Maldives to send back 20,000 undocumented workers
19 ޖުލައި 2020 | އާދީއްތަ 11:25Out of the nearly 200,000 migrant workers in the Maldives, over 60,000 are in the country illegally
Migrant workers applying for the government\'s regularization programme
The government aims to send back at least 20,000 undocumented workers prior to the end of the year, says Minister of Economic Development, Fayyaz Ismail.
Speaking to RaajjeMV on the matter, the minister noted that over 3,900 undocumented workers have already been sent back home and added that their aim is to repatriate between 15,000 to 20,000 workers by the end of the year.
He stressed that the Bangladeshi government has been assisting in the repatriation work.
Furthermore, Fayyaz revealed that expatriate workers residing in the nation without proper documentation such as the employer visa, will be fined from next week onwards. The procedures for penalizing them are to publicized prior to that.
17,711 employment approvals have been granted since the incumbent administration took over in November 2018. While a moratorium was signed on 19th September 2019 as part of the many efforts have been made to solve the issue of illegal expatriates, Fayyaz said that an average of 1,369 employment approvals were issued prior to that.
However, following the moratorium, 413 employment approvals were issued to Bangladeshi citizens, with a monthly average of 10 approvals.
Authorities have also revealed that 3,807 undocumented workers have been regulated under the progamme launched in October 2019, Minister Fayyaz said that there are 4,800 applications still pending.
More than 40,000 migrant workers are to have applied for the regularization programme.
Over 480 Bangladeshi nationals were repatriated from the Maldives last week as well.
Earlier this month, Maldives Immigration’s Deputy Chief Officer, Mohamed Shifan said that there are nearly 60,000 undocumented workers in the country, out of the nearly 200,000 workers.
