40 immigrant labour agents earned US$50 million for one year

Miadhu Daily has been informed that 40 immigrant labour agents have earned more than US$50 million in the previous year.

In view of this information, Controller of Immigration and Emigration, Abdullah Shahid said that he has no comments to make on the value that Miadhu Daily was informed that the immigrant labour agents were said to have received.

“The Police are now investigating the cases. I do not want to make any further comments. But however I would like to say that a great amount of money is involved in these cases of illegal trafficking,” he said.

Recently, Maldives Police Services initiated to investigate Human Trafficking issues ubcoorperation with the Department of Immigration. The department and the Police also had successfully conducted a short intensive program on Human Trafficking for the staff of the Maldives Police Services (MPS). The training was held on the 29h of May 2011 at the MPS building in IskandarKoshi. A total of 35 police officers had participated on the program. The training was lectured by Senior Immigration officers Mohamed Shifan form the Immigration department.

The purpose of the training was to aware the law enforcement bodies on the issues and the challenges of Human Trafficking in Maldives. Discussions were also made on the scope and nature of the problem in the country as well as understanding human trafficking and developing operational indicators on identification of Trafficking victims in a Maldivian context. The training was an important part in advocating the law enforcement bodies on the subject.

Meanwhile, according to media report, the government has planned to deport Bangladeshis working or staying in Maldives illegally. The deportation decision has, reportedly, come following continuous entry of illegal Bangladeshi workers to that country, having a population of only 400,000.

According to the Maldivian foreign minister, the number of Bangladeshis in his country is around 50,000 now and one-third of them are either working or staying there illegally. The minister has urged Dhaka to take appropriate steps to stop illegal migration to the Maldives, which, he said has become a thriving business for unscrupulous manpower recruiting agencies.