The Maldives Labour Market: Unskilled worker recruitment stalled for over 3 years
The labour market in the Maldives for new Bangladeshi workers has remained suspended for about three-and-a-half years now, despite Bangladesh's continuous efforts to reopen it.
In September 2019, the Maldives imposed a ban on bringing in new Bangladeshi labourers reportedly citing that the quota for Bangladeshi workers was reached.
The ban, however, was not imposed on hiring professionals and skilled workers like chefs and nurses, said an official of the Bangladesh High Commission in Malé.
The Maldives is just currently not hiring low-skilled workers from Bangladesh because of the already large number of undocumented Bangladeshi workers residing there, which has been a major hurdle in reopening the market, the official said.
Sohel Parvez, counsellor (labour) of the Bangladesh mission, recently said they were hopeful about reopening the labour market in the Maldives.
He said following their requests about reopening the labour market, Maldives officials expressed their assurance on several occasions.
When imposing the ban in 2019, Maldives Economic Development Minister Fayyaz Ismail announced a quota of 150,000 individuals as migrants per country, to be able to reside in the Maldives at any given time, according to media reports.
However, at present, there is a ceiling of 100,000 foreign workers per country in the Maldives, according to its "Employment Act", an unofficially translated English version of which (amended in 2022) is available online.
Counsellor Sohel Parvez said previously an estimated 100,000 Bangladeshi workers were living in Maldives but their number dropped after several thousand of them returned home amid the pandemic.
At present, Bangladeshis are the largest foreign national community in the Maldives with most of them involved in the construction sector.
In 2019, Minister Fayyaz Ismail also announced a regularisation programme to reduce undocumented foreign workers in Maldives.
Following the initiative, around 45,000 undocumented Bangladeshi workers applied for registration with the Maldives government in 2019.
So far, around 20,000 of them were regularised under the programme, Counsellor Sohel Parvez told this newspaper over the phone.
He said reducing undocumented workers could help reopen the labour market.
For its part, the Bangladesh mission has been providing different support services to the workers to speed up their documentation process, including providing them with the necessary information and issuing passports as soon as possible, the official added.
For regularisation, a worker's employer has to apply for a "work permit" from the Maldives' Economic Development Ministry, said a notice of the Bangladesh High Commission last month.
In September last year, Bangladesh High Commissioner in Maldives Rear Admiral SM Abul Kalam Azad during a courtesy call on Minister Fayyaz Ismail requested the Maldives government to recruit new workers from Bangladesh, according to a Facebook post of the Bangladesh mission.
During the meeting, the envoy also stressed the speedy regularisation of Bangladeshi undocumented workers there.
In response, the Maldivian minister urged undocumented Bangladeshi workers to avail themselves of the opportunity under the regularisation programme.
Once they are documented, the workers get legal and health insurance benefits. Besides, they can remit money home using their own documents through banking channels, helping increase inward remittance.
In a meeting in January this year, Counsellor Sohel Parvez urged Maldives Mariyam Nazima, deputy minister at the Ministry of Economic Development, to recruit new workers from Bangladesh, read another Facebook post of the mission.
However, an email requesting comment on the labour market's reopening was not immediately answered by the Maldives High Commission in Dhaka.
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