Maldives Immigration has permitted an additional 301 expatriates to return home on an evacuation flight operated by Sri Lankan Airlines.
Immigration said 285 Sri Lankans, 14 Japanese and 2 South Koreans have been permitted to leave the Maldives. The Japanese and Korean nationals will return to their countries after transiting in Sri Lanka.
Immigration has also restarted issuing passports submitted to attain work visa before the lockdown order was enforced in the greater Male' Region due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The office started issuing passports on May 12 after many countries have begun the evacuation of expatriates in the Maldives. Immigration said passports submitted with visa applications can be collected from 1100hrs until 1300hrs, all days except the weekends.
Maldives Immigration has also been working with other authorities to repatriate unregistered and undocumented workers in the country. In this regard, 68 Bangladeshis, 900 Indians and 43 Pakistanis have been repatriated. An additional 350 Bangladeshis and 200 Indians will soon be repatriated.
Since the community spread of COVID-19 began in the Maldives, 659 of the 982 confirmed cases in the Maldives have been expatriates including Bangladeshi, Indian, Sri Lankan, Nepalese and Pakistani nationals.