Being allured by human traffickers, thousands of Bangladeshi nationals who migrated in the Maldives are now forced to work in substandard workplaces as underpaid employees. A team of the Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry officials after visiting the island country said that about 60,000 Bangladeshis are living there without valid documents. The Maldives’ recent economic development riding on blue tourism and exotic hotel chain require huge construction and other development activities, in where unskilled Bangladeshi nationals are reportedly working.
In the last few years, the rackets of middlemen and human traffickers sent a huge number of Bangladeshi workers to the Maldives on tourist visas charging Tk 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh from each. But the migrant workers didn’t get help from anyone when they become undocumented after expiring of their visas. In some cases, workers’ passports and documents were seized by the agents after their arrival. Presently, the undocumented workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. As most of them are unskilled, they are allegedly forced to work more than 14 hours a day against the lowest wage of US$ 100-150 per month.
Immigration police in the Maldives in their routine raids often arrest the undocumented foreign workers. In 2016, 20 Bangladeshi were arrested in Male. This time, the Bangladeshi team met top officials of the Maldivian government and requested them to renew the Memorandum of Understanding on manpower recruitment, of which tenure had expired on May 29, 2016. The Maldives hired workers from Bangladesh under MoU signed on May 29, 2011. Despite suffering and harassment, many workers cannot leave the country to return home due to outstanding debts to their brokers and fear of reprisal.
It is high time for the Bangladesh government to take effective and sincere steps helping the distressed workers in the Maldives. We do believe, Bangladesh government would be able to reach an agreement with the Maldives government to ensure workplace safety, international-standard wage along with recreation and comfortable living condition for our migrant workers staying in the Maldives. Side by side, it needs to take stringent measures against the human traffickers or middlemen so that they don’t get any scope to further lure the migrant workers.
In the last few years, the rackets of middlemen and human traffickers sent a huge number of Bangladeshi workers to the Maldives on tourist visas charging Tk 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh from each. But the migrant workers didn’t get help from anyone when they become undocumented after expiring of their visas. In some cases, workers’ passports and documents were seized by the agents after their arrival. Presently, the undocumented workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. As most of them are unskilled, they are allegedly forced to work more than 14 hours a day against the lowest wage of US$ 100-150 per month.
Immigration police in the Maldives in their routine raids often arrest the undocumented foreign workers. In 2016, 20 Bangladeshi were arrested in Male. This time, the Bangladeshi team met top officials of the Maldivian government and requested them to renew the Memorandum of Understanding on manpower recruitment, of which tenure had expired on May 29, 2016. The Maldives hired workers from Bangladesh under MoU signed on May 29, 2011. Despite suffering and harassment, many workers cannot leave the country to return home due to outstanding debts to their brokers and fear of reprisal.
It is high time for the Bangladesh government to take effective and sincere steps helping the distressed workers in the Maldives. We do believe, Bangladesh government would be able to reach an agreement with the Maldives government to ensure workplace safety, international-standard wage along with recreation and comfortable living condition for our migrant workers staying in the Maldives. Side by side, it needs to take stringent measures against the human traffickers or middlemen so that they don’t get any scope to further lure the migrant workers.
