Allegations arise India imposing visa restriction on Maldivians

Some Maldivians living in neighboring India have raised allegations the country is imposing restrictions on visa services.

Maldivian ambassador for India, Ahmed Mohamed confirmed to “Sun” this Tuesday that the embassy has been receiving complaints from Maldivian citizens living in India over difficulties in obtaining extensions on visas.

However, said Ahmed, the Indian authorities say there has been no change to the current policy on visas for Maldivians travelling to India.

Both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Maldives and the Indian embassy in Maldives say there has been no change to the visa policy.

“Sun” was unable to obtain a comment from Indian ambassador Akhilesh Mishra regarding the allegations as he was in a meeting when “Sun” called.

Allegations of visa restrictions by India comes after Maldives recently announced it will be signing a free trade agreement with China.

India has previously froze visa for Maldivian when rifts arose between the two countries and forced applicants to queue outside the Indian Embassy for a long time. Visa applicants were also required to provide bank statements of the last three months.