701 foreigners granted clearance to leave Maldives amid lockdown

Maldives Immigration, on Saturday, announced it had granted clearance to 701 foreigners to travel back home on evacuation flights this weekend.

Border control measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 have left many foreigners stranded in Maldives, among the tourists and expatriate workers.

According to Immigration, it granted clearance to 701 foreigners to depart to their home countries over the weekend.

They left on evaluation flights to Italy, Indonesia and Philippines on Friday and Saturday.

“Most of them were expatriate workers,” noted Immigration in its statement.

The evacuations come with the Greater Male’ Region under lockdown and a nationwide ban on non-essential travel following the emergence of virus cases in the capital. Virus cases in Maldives, fueled by the community outbreak in the capital, has now risen to 141.