MVR 182 million received in 3 weeks in expatriate fee recovery

Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology has revealed that within three weeks of publicly disclosing names of companies that have failed to pay work permit fees, quota fees, and subsequent fines, MVR 182 million in overdue fees has been recovered by the State.

For the first time ever, on July 24, the government announced the names of companies who had been fined due to repeated failure to pay due fees. The list included names of 1026 companies, including major businesses, and cited an amount of MVR 636 million as overdue.

Within three weeks of having publicized this list, Homeland Security Ministry said last night, an amount of MVR 182,954,572 has been recovered. The ministry did not provide any additional details about this.

As per the list that was released by the government, 123 companies owed more than a million to the State. Some companies had stacked up over MVR 26 million in dues.

Details of overdue fees

Work permit fee - MVR 573,840,450

Quota fee - MVR 96,559,286

Cancellation fines - MVR 2,144,000

The government is conducting a wide variety of efforts to identify and take action against undocumented expatriates, as well as expatriates conducting businesses illegally in the country. As of now, over 200 expatriates have been detained and placed on the deportation list under special operations being run by Maldives Immigration in collaboration with Police.

The government has also stated that over 2000 expatriates residing in the country against laws and regulations have been deported within the past nine months.

Immigration has also launched an online portal, 'Immigration Watch', through which anyone can submit reports of undocumented workers, even anonymously. Within approximately a month of the portal being launched, 290 reports were submitted, of which the Immigration is investigating 139 cases, with information being verified in 146 cases, according to the Homeland Security Ministry.

The government has also proposed amendments to the Employment Act to parliament seeking to levy a fine of MVR 50,000 against employers who are negligent towards expatriate employees, including failure to pay due wages. The parliament's 241 Committee has now approved the amendments, with a final vote on the matter to be taken in parliament chambers.