The Ministry of Economic Development has called for the public and businesses to submit "Missing Persons Requests" for unaccounted expatriate workers in a bid to regulate and legalize the presence of foreign workers in the Maldives.

The Ministry of Economic Development made the request as per provisions detailed under Article 33 of the Regulation on Employing Expatriates in the Maldives, which states that employers of expatriate workers musty notify the Ministry via their expat system in the event that an expat brought to work in the Maldives goes missing or cannot be accounted for. This can be achieved through submitting a "Missing Persons Request' to the Ministry of Economic Development.

In addition to this, the Ministry further revealed that employers of expat workers would have between 15 February and 14 March to update the expat system with information on those workers who had been reported as missing or unaccounted for, in the event that they were previously undocumented in the registry.

The lack of a properly maintained registration for expat workers in the Maldives makes it highly challenging for authorities to track and document expatriates in the country. The Ministry of Economic Development continues to undertake many efforts to regulate and legalize the presence of expatriates working in the Maldives, in addition to repatriating those workers who wish to return to their native countries.

Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail recently detailed that the Ministry aimed to repatriate 20,000 foreigners working illegally in the Maldives in 2021 just as the previous year. As of now, over 7,000 persons working illegally in the Maldives have been repatriated to Bangladesh, in addition to 8,000 fully documented workers who expressed independent wishes to return to their native countries.