People are saying that more than 99% of the illegal immigrants in Maldives are Bangladeshis and as long as Maldivian Government compromises the aissue against Bangladesh given medical scholarships and vehicles for MNDF, this problem will never be solved.
Also, the dollars which is going out of the country in huge numbers can never be reduced, without dealing with immigrants first. In addition, people are also blaming the immigrants for lack of job opportunities for Maldivians.
Mr. Ahmed Zuhoor, the Minister at President’s Office said that one main reason for the dollar shortage in Maldives is the presence of expat workers. Zuhoor said that even though official figures show that there are 130,000 foreigners it is estimated that there will be around 170,000 expats in the Maldives.
Even if they are here illegally or legally, all expats in Maldives do some form of work. That means that they will send money back home each month. If we assume that they send 300 Dollars per month, that is 51 million dollars per month and 612 million dollars annually.
The figure even might reach to a billion dollars before we know it.
Saudi Arabia has billions in their reserves. They have taken good measures to control the amount of money that is going out of the country. For instance, a foreign worker can only send an amount that is equivalent to the work salary that he/she is hetting as oer work contract. In addition, immigration and customs check, how much money people are taking out of the country when they leave the country. They have whole system connected with banks and immigration to control the amount of money going out of the country.
Starting from yesterday even Maldives has started taking a remittance tax. With this the government can also check that they are sending what they legally earn only. In addition, government can also make sure that those who send money are only those with work visas.
Without taking proper actions against Illegal workers and money transfer it is really pointless talking about the issues of Dollar Shortage.
Government cannot find a solution to shortage of dollars, without dealing with the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants first!
