An additional 200 undocumented Bangladeshi workers have been repatriated from the Maldives via the national airline, Maldivian.
The Bangladeshi workers were repatriated under an agreement made between the governments of the Maldives and Bangladesh. They were evacuated on a flight operated by Maldivian to Dhaka on May 26.
Maldivian had also operated four repatriation flights to Dhaka across May 22 and May 23, evacuating a total of 702 Bangladeshi nationals. A total of 1,390 Bangladeshis have now been repatriated from the Maldives amid the COVID-19 pandemic, across different flights of Maldivian, Biman Bangladesh Airlines and the Bangladesh Air Force.
The government is working on evacuating undocumented expatriate workers as they are being deprived of basic human rights and subjected to mistreatment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, Maldivian Red Crescent (MRC) has launched efforts to provide humanitarian aid to expatriate workers in need of assistance amid the lockdown imposed in the Greater Male’ Region.