Maldives bans hiring unskilled Bangladeshi labour for one year

The Maldives government has banned recruiting unskilled Bangladeshi labourers for a period of one year, starting from September 18, in a bid to solve a longstanding problem of undocumented migrant workers.

The ban was imposed as Bangladeshis already exceeded a quota of 150,000 fixed for immigrants from a country,  Minister of Economics Ahmed Fayyaz yesterday (Wednesday) told a press conference held to brief the public on the state's efforts to implement solutions for the increasing number of undocumented immigrants residing illegally in the island country.

Since this is the case, the minister stated that, for the specified duration, immigrant workers can only be brought from countries other than Bangladesh, he said.

"We decided to impose a limit for each country. In determining this limit, we refer to the unskilled labour category and due to the current situation, we are unable to allow any more Bangladeshi labourers into the country at the moment", said Minister Fayyaz.

Referring to the sudden announcement, Fayyaz stated that those who had requested for the quota beforehand will receive the chance to bring in workers, reports Maldives' The Edition.

Noting that the decision was made by the task force established by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Tuesday, to find a solution for undocumented immigrant workers in the country, Minister Fayyaz iterated that the regulation will be reviewed if this decision impacts the economy negatively with in the upcoming six months.

Fayyaz is also the chairman of the aforementioned task force.

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