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Maldives to strengthen health screening for expatriates

Maldives Immigration has said that it is working to further strengthen the health screening process for incoming expatriates in a bid to keep the country free from communicable diseases.

In an interview with PSM News, Hassan Khaleel, Media and Information Office at Maldives Immigration, said: “Our aim is to lower the risk from communicable diseases by implementing a stricter health checks on incoming expats.”  “All Government accredited healthcare providers in the country should be able to provide health screening service for expatriates in order to strengthen the process,” he added.

Khaleel also said they are in discussion with authorities of neighbouring countries to determine ways to improve the migration management system, adding that such a mechanism needs to be established between countries in the region to share information on expatriate workers who travel from one country to another.  

All expatriates who come into the country are tested for communicable diseases including HIV, hepatitis B, VDRL, and tuberculosis as part of their work permit medical check-up, according to Maldives Immigration.