Maldives repatriates another 200 Bangladeshis

The Maldives has repatriated 200 more Bangladeshi nationals through its national airline, the Maldivian media reports.

The repatriation took place on Monday afternoon, where a flight of the country’s national airline Maldivian departed with them to Dhaka, according to Maldivian news channel Raajje TV.

According to the Maldives’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, over 4,582 undocumented Bangladeshi nationals have been repatriated from the Maldives thus far.

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 Maldives’ government efforts to evacuate volunteering expatriate workers from the Maldives, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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, the Economic Minister 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 sent back home, without their consent.

Close to 14,000 expatriate workers who volunteered to go back home under the government-initiated repatriation program, have been evacuated thus far.

Earlier, the Maldives government revealed that close to 100,000 undocumented workers are residing illegally in the Maldives without valid documentations and/or passports.

The island country had earlier announced that it is to begin imposing fines on expatriate workers residing in the nation without proper documentation such as the employer visa.