Govt defends Bangladeshi worker ban lift; says cap not reached

There are 90,624 Bangladeshis working in Maldives and economic ministry's statistics show that the number is higher due to the pending cancellation of quotas of non-residents, homeland security minister Ali Ihsan said on Monday.

The government on Sunday lifted a ban on unskilled workers from Bangladesh, despite official figures showing that the number of Bangladeshi workers in Maldives already exceed the cap of 100,000 allowed for any one country. 

The home ministry announced that unskilled labourers will can now be brought to Maldives from Bangladesh from Sunday. A ban on quotas for unskilled workers from other countries will now kick in, it added.

However, the Employment Act states that a maximum of 100,000 migrant workers can be brought in from any one country to work in Maldives. 

According to data released by the economic ministry on November 17, 139,220 Bangladeshi workers have active work permits in Maldives.

As the media began reporting the information, the report has now been removed from the economic ministry's website. The ministry's post on X has also been deleted along with the link to the report.

Ihsan told Atoll Times on Monday that the statistics of the economic ministry showed that there were more Bangladeshi workers than the number stipulated by law, because the quotas of non-residents had not been cancelled. The quotas are now being cancelled and the figures are being tallied, he said.

Ihsan said the number of Bangladeshis currently working in Maldives, according to the Immigration's border control system, is 90,246.

The quotas of foreigners who do not live or work in the Maldives have not been cancelled for a long time, he said, because the companies bringing them in have not applied for cancellation and some have not been able to confirm whether or not they have returned.

"I will not say that the cancellations will be cleared and the figures will be clarified right away. But we are doing the work. Once the work is completed, the figures shown by the border controller system will match the figures recorded in the ministry," he said.

Ihsan added that a task force has been formed with Immigration and Corrections to regulate the deportation of undocumented expatriate workers and arrange for those who can be employed.

Ihsan said 53 undocumented expatriate workers have already been deported as part of the operation. He said a large number of such foreigners will be deported in the future.

"Of course, I can assure you that the figure will not exceed. The figures will not go so high," he explained.

He said the temporary permission to bring more foreigners was given because of the need for Bangladeshi workers.