date_range
Sunday 08 Sep 2024
LOCAL EDITION
close
LOCAL EDITION
Demonstrators protest outside the President's Office demanding the passage of the Israel passport ban bill. (Sun Photo/Naish Nahid)
The Parliament’s National Security Services Committee (241 Committee) has yet to schedule work on a bill to change Maldives’ laws to ban entries on Israeli passports – in the one month since it was sent to the committee for review.
The bill, which sets down amendments to the Immigration Act, was sent to the National Security Services Committee with a unanimous vote on 88 on June 10.
But it is unclear when the committee will set the work on the bill in its agenda. The committee held four meetings in the one month since the bill was sent. However, it did not do any work on the bill in any of these meetings.
A lawmaker who sits in the committee confirmed to Sun on Sunday afternoon that they have yet to schedule work on the bill.
“It will be set in the agenda based on the order of work sent to the committee. So, it will probably be set in the agenda in a week or so,” said the committee member, who spoke to Sun on condition of anonymity.
The committee held its first meeting after the bill was sent on June 25, when it summoned officials from the Home Ministry. The committee held a meeting the next day, during which it met with officials from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
It held its third meeting on July 1, when it met with officials from the Home Ministry and Maldives Police Service. It also held a meeting the next day, for another meeting with officials from Maldives Police Service.
President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s cabinet made the decision to make legislative changes to ban Israeli passports on June 2.
The cabinet also set up a special committee to expedite the process, which is composed of:
At the time, the Parliament had already received a bill from South Galolhu MP Meekail Ahmed Naseem, a politician from the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), seeking a blanket ban on travelers with Israeli passports.
Following the cabinet’s decision, the main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) decided to accept the bill into the Parliament, and make the changes the government wants during the committee stage.
Meekail’s bill is designed to add a clause to Article 8 of Immigration Act, which lists individuals who are barred from entering the Maldives.
It seeks to bar the entry of all Israeli passport holders, including those who have dual citizenship.
However, Attorney General Ahmed Usham said that a blanket ban on all Israeli citizens could create certain “complications.” He said that his office would submit amendments to the bill.
Meanwhile, the Parliament’s Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim also called for a more cautious approach, warning of the potential economic fallout from such a decision.
Maldivians has been holding protests in the streets of the capital, Male’ City, for months, demanding that the government ban Israeli citizens from entering the country, amid mounting outrage over the atrocities in Gaza, and other occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel’s current war on Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children. It has also reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble, displaced the vast majority of residents, and resulted in widespread malnutrition.
The Maldives’ cabinet, in its June meeting, also made four other key decisions with regard to Palestine.
