Over 8,000 Bangladeshi workers have been repatriated from the Maldives.

Airport Terminal Operations Manager at the Velana International Airport (VIA), Ibrahim Hussain revealed that a total of 8,509 Bangladeshi nationals have been repatriated from the country between July 15 to September 16.

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 Covid-19 pandemic.

The authorities began battling the global 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.

The repatriation exercise 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.

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.