The Ministry of Economic Development has begun work to seek out the expatriate workers in the Maldives who wish to return home through the government’s expatriate repatriation exercise, on the streets.

Media official at the ministry revealed that employees have been stationed across check points in the capital city’s Zikra Mosque region since Wednesday.

The media official did not disclose further details regarding the programme.

The government began the repatriation exercise after an announcement by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih during May, after thousands of Bangladeshi nationals began testing positive for the global Covid-19 pandemic, since the community transmission was discovered in the Maldives capital region on April 15 and a lockdown was imposed consecutively.

Earlier, the Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail stated that the government aims to send back at least 20,000 undocumented workers prior to the end of the ongoing year.

As such, over 3,900 undocumented workers have already been sent back home by now and the ministry aims to repatriate between 15,000 to 20,000 workers by year-end.

Fayyaz noted that expatriate workers will not be send back home, without their consent.

The work is being carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bangladeshi High Commission in the Maldives, with the assistance from the Bangladeshi government.

In addition, the state is to begin imposing fines on expatriate workers residing in the nation without proper documentation such as the employer visa from next week onwards. A procedure for penalizing the expats will be publicized.

The Immigration office has revealed that out of the 200,000 expatriate workers residing in the Maldives, nearly 60,000 are undocumented workers living illegally without valid visas and passports.