Maldives extends temporary ban on entry of new Bangladeshi workers

Male’, Maldives – The Ministry of Economic Development has announced on Thursday, that it has extended the ban on bringing Bangladeshi labourers to Maldives for a period of one year.

This comes just as the restriction’s September 18 deadline draws close.

The Minister of Economic Development, Fayyaz Ismail, in 2019, affixed a quota of 150,000 individuals as migrants per country, to be able to reside in the Maldives at any given time.

Since Bangladeshi immigrants already exceed this quota, workers can only be brought from countries other than Bangladesh at present. However, these restrictions do not apply to professional-level employees.

Maldives Immigration revealed that 63,000 immigrants out of the 144,607 that entered the country under work visas are currently residing illegally.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed this Monday, that the number of undocumented Bangladeshi citizens repatriated till date has now reached 5,049.

Authorities estimated earlier that approximately 20,000 workers will be sent back to their home countries by the end of 2020.

 

Source: The Edition