Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail has revealed the quota for bringing in expatriate workers to the Maldives have been reduced by 55% in the last three years. He made the statement in his speech at the opening ceremony of the job centre in Alifushi, Raa Atoll.
The economic ministry and the Alifushi Island Council signed an agreement to establish the job centre, which is the first in a series to be launched nationwide. The purpose of the project is to connect Maldivians seeking jobs with employers with open positions in their organisations.
In his speech at the ceremony, Minister Fayyaz highlighted the importance of bringing employers and job seekers to one single platform to solve the issue of Maldivians not being able to find employment. The government will be able to use the data gathered from the platform to make evidence-informed policies, he also said.
Furthermore, Minister Fayyaz said the government will also be implementing a minimum wage in the near future and proposing a bill on job security to the parliament. He detailed that the ministry is currently formulating a bill on trade unions, which will be publicised for public opinion before it is proposed in the parliament.
Additionally, the minister said 24,000 foreign workers have so far been repatriated as part of the government's work to solve the issue of illegal immigration. As such, he said 43,000 foreigners have been registered in the Maldives while others have been repatriated for reasons such as incomplete or expired documents.
Minister Fayyaz said quotas for expatriate workers have been reduced by 55% compared to 2018 and the efforts to repatriate undocumented immigrants are still ongoing.