The government of the Maldives has announced efforts are underway to repatriate over 350 undocumented Bangladeshi workers from the Maldives.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated the government is working on repatriating undocumented workers as they are being deprived of basic human rights and subjected to mistreatment due to the COVID-19 crisis. The ministry said efforts are underway to repatriate over 350 undocumented Bangladeshi workers, in collaboration with the government of Bangladesh.
The foreign ministry said undocumented Bangladeshi workers who registered for repatriation during the registration window have been transported to Hulhumale’ for COVID-19 testing. The ministry said the workers will be repatriated to Bangladesh within 2-3 days after the results of their COVID-19 tests are confirmed.
The government has previously repatriated 68 undocumented workers on an evacuation flight of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The flight had arrived in the Maldives with 53 locals stranded in Bangladesh and 18 locals stranded in Nepal.
The government is also conducting a relocation programme to transfer expatriate workers living in congested spaces in Male’ City to new accommodation facilities. In this regard, several expatriate workers have been relocated from Male’ to accommodation facilities developed in Hulhumale’ and Gulhifalhu.
While a total of 904 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the Maldives so far, 495 cases belong to Bangladeshi workers.