Number of expats repatriated through Maldivian rises to 6,732

Maldivian has repatriated a total of 6,732 expatriate workers from the country, thus far.

The country’s national airline revealed that the latest repatriation flight departed from Velana International Airport (VIA) to Dhaka, Bangladesh with 200 Bangladeshi nationals, on Wednesday.

This was the 35th repatriation flight from Maldivian, as well as the first flight during the ongoing month.

A total of 1,551 expatriate workers were evacuated during August, revealed the national airline.

The authorities began battling the Covid-19 pandemic at a time the issue of undocumented Bangladeshi nationals living illegally in the Maldives had been a rising concern. Maldives Immigration earlier revealed that close to 100,000 undocumented workers are residing illegally in the Maldives without valid documentations and/or passports. The state earlier announced that it is to begin imposing fines on expatriate workers residing in the nation without proper documentation such as the employer visa.

During May, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced that the government will be repatriating thousands of Bangladeshi nationals living illegally in the Maldives, following which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Development collaboratively began a repatriation exercise.

The repatriation is part of the government’s efforts to evacuate volunteering expatriate workers from the Maldives, due to the virus.

These efforts are 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.

Earlier, Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail stated that the government aims to send back at least 20,000 undocumented workers prior to the end of the ongoing year. Fayyaz noted that expatriate workers will not be send back home, without their consent.