Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail has announced a quota of 150,000 individuals has been fixed for expatriate workers from each country.
Speaking at a press conference, Minister Fayyaz explained the administration is making maximum efforts to solve the issue of illegal and undocumented expatriate workers in Maldives. The limit comes as a measure to address the increasing number of undocumented and illegal expatriates in Maldives. However, the minister noted the limit has been set for unskilled labourers.
Economic ministry is working to solve the issue of illegal workers and one such programme is regulation plans that aims to document and regulate the undocumented labourers. A centre has been set up to register and regulate such workers. The programme regularises all expatriate undocumented workers regardless of whether they carry an Employment Approval.
Expatriates who have been offered employment must submit the regularisation requests via Expat Online Portal by the employer. Expatriates without an employer are requested to register at the ministry within 6 months since the start of the regularisation plan.
The economic minister explained the new regularisation programme is free of charge, although the previous regularisation process required a fee of USD 420. He expects to start an awareness programme and the regularisation plan in atolls as well.