Another group of Bangladeshi nationals residing in the Maldives has been repatriated.

The country’s national airline, Maldivian carried out the repatriation of 200 Bangladeshi workers on Wednesday, on a flight bound to Dhaka, Bangladesh.

This is the 40th repatriation flight carried out by the airline since the repatriation exercise began.

Thus far, the airline has flown a total of 7,732 Bangladeshi passengers on these repatriation flights.

The repatriation exercise was prompted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, after thousands of Bangladeshi nationals began testing positive for the infection. The repatriation is part of the government’s efforts to evacuate volunteering expatriate workers from the Maldives due to the pandemic.

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 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.

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.

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.