Govt plans to drop limit on recruitment of Bangladeshi laborers

Home Minister Ali Ihusan says the Maldives needs to drop the limit on recruitment of unskilled laborers from Bangladesh, adding the country would not be able to meet the current demand for laborers, otherwise.

The law requires that the number of unskilled workers from each source country to be capped at 100,000.

In a meeting with the Parliament’s National Security Services Committee on Tuesday, Ihusan said that the Maldives has some 96,000 Bangladeshi laborers, and that the limit will be reached, as soon as it lifts the current ban.

“Based on the current demand for labor in the Maldives and as well as the forecasted future demand, the 100,000-limit on Bangladeshi laborers is something we must drop,” he said.

But he said the limit cannot be dropped without implementing certain safeguards, the chief of which is to create a system to record the biometric data of all expatriates.

He added that he believes requiring expatriates to get a separate permit from any island they work in, in addition to the official work permit, will also go a long way towards curtailing illegal migration.

“They must be mobilized only after they are allocated to the island they are coming to, through the system, and after they are endorsed by the council. We are working on bringing this development to the system,” he said.

The Home Ministry had imposed a ban on recruitment of unskilled laborers from Bangladesh back in April, to investigate multiple instances where fake documents were used to bring in laborers.

“We will recommend to the Parliament to lift the limit. But we will not do it until we fully roll out safeguards,” he said.

“I do not believe we can cater to the current demand in the Maldives by keeping the 100,000-limit.”

Maldives had imposed a ban on the recruitment of unskilled laborers from Bangladesh in September 2019, during the former administration, after announcing that workers from the neighboring country far exceeded that number.

The incumbent administration had lifted the ban in December last year, before the recent reversal.

Illegal migration remains a longstanding issue in the Maldives.

The Home Ministry has launched a special operation under the name ‘Kurangi’, in a crackdown on illegal migration.

The biometrics of over 1,500 migrants have been collected under the operation.