Ministry seeks employment details of expat workers volunteering to return home

The Ministry of Economic Development is seeking employment details from some expatriate workers that registered to voluntarily return home.

In a circular issued on Tuesday, the ministry noted that a number of expatriates under a valid employment approval in the Maldives are applying under the “Voluntary Repatriation” programme launched by the ministry in cooperation with the Bangladeshi government, to evacuate the thousands of undocumented expatriate workers residing illegally in the country.

Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail earlier noted expatriates will not be repatriated without their consent and willingness, under the programme.

A list of 251 expatriates who volunteered to return home was publicized by the ministry, which stressed that although the registered workers have valid employment approvals, they are not working for the employers who issued said approvals.

In light of this, the ministry has sought from these workers to send an email throughrepatriation@trade.gov.mvbefore August 5, to confirm that they are working under the employer who issued their employment approvals.

Expatriate workers are required to attach their passport numbers as well as employer details alongside their names, in the email.

The ministry began seeking expatriate workers in the Maldives who wish to return home through the programme, on July 22.

The government has been repatriating Bangladeshi workers through an exercise launched 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 Minister Fayyaz stated that the government aims to send back about 20,000 undocumented workers prior to the end of the ongoing year.

As such, over 4,000 undocumented workers have already been sent back home by now.

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.

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 documents.