Maldives labour market for Bangladeshis closed again
Maldives labour market has been closed as Bangladesh has fulfilled the quota of highest number of foreign workers for a single country.
Sources at the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry and the Bangladesh high commission in Maldives said the Maldives follows extra caution in recruiting foreign workers.
The parliament of the country has approved a law that will not allow recruitment of workers exceeding 100,000 from a single country.
As a result, Bangladeshi aspirant migrants are not getting visas.
Bangladesh high commission in Maldives issued a circular in this regard on 22 May.
According to the circular, the Maldives government halted issuing visas for Bangladeshi workers.
The total population of Maldives is around 525,000. The tourism sector is the driving force of the economy. Over 200,000 tourists visit Maldives every year. There are demands of foreign workers in the hotels, motels and restaurants. There are nearly 200,000 foreign workers in the country. There are around 100,000 irregular Bangladeshi workers. There are also around 30,000 irregular migrants in the Islands nation.
It also said there is no scope to work without recruitment by the approved employers. Meanwhile, a number of unskilled workers have been sent back home for violating this rule.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, the first secretary at Bangladesh high commission in Maldives, Md Sohel Parvez said there is a legal obligation for quota. So the country has not issued visas since April.
However, a negotiation is going on with the government, he said adding new workers will be able to go if the quota is raised.
The labour market closed three months after opening
A total of 104,000 workers went to Maldives between 2004 and 2018. 4411 workers went there in 2019.
The Maldives labour market remained closed between 2019 and 2023.
Afterwards, the labour market resumed in December 2023. Mainly unskilled workers started sending in January. A total of 6,436 workers have taken clearance from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) till 22 May. A big portion of workers could not go as they were not issued visas.
Sheikh Alamin, a resident from Chandpur, has given Tk 35,00 to a middleman to go to Maldives.
He said many aspirant migrants are in a state of uncertainty after paying money to go to Maldives.
The total population of Maldives is around 525,000. The tourism sector is the driving force of the economy. Over 200,000 tourists visit Maldives every year. There are demands of foreign workers in the hotels, motels and restaurants. There are nearly 200,000 foreign workers in the country.
There are around 100,000 irregular Bangladeshi workers. There are also around 30,000 irregular migrants in the Islands nation.