Repatriation of 1500 undocumented migrants to commence next week

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has stated that work to repatriate 1500 undocumented migrants in the country will commence in the upcoming week.

Addressing the nation today, President Solih stated that the virus had spread the most within the migrant population who are living in overcrowded and congested conditions in the capital, which is also proving to be the most difficult reason to control the virus.

To overcome these difficulties, work to repatriate undocumented migrants were now underway.

“After discussions with the government of Bangladesh, repatriation of 1500 Bangladeshi nationals back to their country, will commence within the upcoming week.” Said President Solih.

He also added that the first phase of relocating migrants in overcrowded quarters of the capital was now finished. They will be housed in facilities established in Vilivaru, Hulhumale’ and Gulhifalhu.

“Work to move 3000 people to these locations are now underway.” Said the President.

The President admitted that this was not a new issue to arise in the country and gave the hope that this issue could be effectively addressed.

“When a large number of migrants are living in the country without a home, source of income, employment, or any official documents, there must be people who brought them to the country. This is not an issue that has been on just one or two occasions.” Said the President.

The President’s comments come just a few weeks after 60 such undocumented migrants were repatriated on a Bangladeshi military flight from the Maldives.

The government has also announced that any migrants that wished to return to their countries to register. Around 800 such registrations have been so far received by the government.

Economic Minister Fayyaz has recently estimated that there were 100,000 such undocumented migrants in the Maldives. A government policy of arresting such migrants could prove extremely costly, said the Minister who added that this was the reason why the government preferred to regularize the migrants.

The Minister had also stated that around 300 migrants will soon be repatriated.

While Maldives has recorded 541 cases of COVID-19, 49.9 percent of the cases are Bangladeshi nationals. Many of them tested positive after being identified in congested living quarters in the capital.

Authorities have previously reported 95 positive cases of migrants from just one location in the capital. The authorities are currently monitoring 23 such locations in the capital, where testing would be conducted.

Maldives Immigration has previously estimated that around 200,000 migrants were working in the Maldives. The government’s regularization program also saw about 30,000 migrants register.