Expats protest outside Muliaage over unpaid wages; 55 detained

At least 55 expatriate workers were detained on Saturday, after they gathered outside the presidential palace, Muliaage, to protest over unpaid wages.

A police spokesperson told Sun that the police attended to a group of expatriates who gathered outside Muliaage in Male’ to express displeasure claiming they hadn’t been paid their wages.

The workers were pushed away from Muliaage towards the Majeedhiyya School located nearby.

According to the police, total 55 workers were taken into the custody of Maldives Immigration; 38 Indians and 17 Bangladeshis.

The company or companies they work for is unclear at this point.

This is not the first time for expatriate workers in the Maldives to protest over unpaid wages.

Expatriate workers, especially those working as laborers and other menial jobs, have repeatedly faced situations where employers withhold their wages, keep them housed in dangerously cramped accommodations, and sometimes even hold their passports and other official documents.

In 2020, disgruntled migrant workers in B. Bodufinolhu – which was under development as a tourist resort - staged a violent strike over months of unpaid wages, during which they destroyed property, held local workers hostage and confronted the police.

The standoff ended after riot police deployed from Male’ stormed the island and detained 19 workers. 11 of them were convicted of charges including assault, possession of sharp-edged weapons, destruction of property and obstruction of law enforcement.

The workers claimed they had not been paid their wages in months, and resorted to violence after they were threatened with deportation and injury in the hands of criminal gangs if they raised the issue of their unpaid wages.

The violence in Bodufinolhu also led to a police investigation into RIX – the company contracted to develop Bodufinolhu - on suspicion of “exploitation and forced labor of migrant workers, facilitating human trafficking, failure to pay fees and payments entitled to the State on behalf of the migrant workers and violation of the rights of migrant workers”.