National airline Maldivian, on Monday, revealed that an additional 200 Bangladeshi citizens were sent back to their home country on a flight headed to Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.
According to Maldivian, the airline has arranged 30 flights to repatriate a total of 5733 Bangladeshi nationals since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that the number undocumented Bangladeshi citizens repatriated till date has now reached 5049.
Authorities estimated earlier that approximately 20,000 workers will be sent back to their home countries by the end of 2020.
Since the beginning of the community-wide outbreak of COVID-19 in Maldives, a total of 2,019 Bangladeshi expatriates have tested positive for the virus, amounting to roughly 34 percent of all confirmed cases in the country.
The COVID-19 outbreak in the capital city of Male' has disproportionately affected the expatriate population, the majority of whom are Bangladeshi nationals living in highly congested quarters where it is impossible to reduce contact or exercise social distancing. Their often small-spaced living conditions have been described by local and international civil society organisations as, "claustrophobic", "unsanitary" and "overcrowded".
In a move to contain the spread of the coronavirus, in particular within congested labour quarters, the government mobilised efforts to transfer expatriate workers to safer environments, including temporary shelters in Hulhumale', Thilafushi and Gulhifalhu.
Maldives now records total 5,785 confirmed and 2,414 active COVID-19 cases, along with 3,349 recoveries and 22 deaths.
On March 12, WHO classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. To date, the new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 21.8 million people and claimed over 773,500 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 14.5 million people have recovered.
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