The Minister of Homeland Security, Ali Ihsan, has dismissed rumors of the Bangladeshi expatriate workers' community in the Maldives exceeding the legally allowed limit.

Maldives government lifted its ban on hiring Bangladeshi expatriates to the Maldives' workforce recently, after a four-year restriction period, which has attracted criticism from public and political figures alike.

Among the prominent dissidents to the government's decision was the former Minister of Economic Development, Fayyaz Ismail, who stated that reopening borders for Bangladeshi workers was unlawful after their quota capacity had been fully exhausted.

He highlighted the relevant Act that stipulates the maximum quota capacity of foreign expatriates allowed to the Maldives for work from each country.

Section 65(a) of the Employment Act states that the maximum number of quotas for expatriates from any foreign country would be issued to 100,000. The government sought to legally prohibit further hiring of Bangladesh workers in the Maldives after their expatriate community exceeded the legally allowed capacity.

However, the Ministry of Homeland Security, under which the mandate of monitoring the expatriate workers' community falls, has reported that currently, workers from Bangladesh stand at 90,620.

The former Economic Minister's claimed figure of the total number of Bangladeshi workers was, according to the Homeland Minister, the currently active work permit total from the country, which is well within the legally allowed limit.

"They have confused between the active work permit total from the expat system and the border control figures; both the figures would be different, since they are both two distinctive aspects," Minister Ihsan said.

The Minister further explained that despite an expat absconding from work or the country, their work permit would be reflected 'active' unless applied for cancellation. However, the expat community's active workers have been identified through the border control system, which was used to identify the expats who fled the country.

Minister Ihsan further said that this has been identified in the most recent expatriate report shared by the Ministry of Economic Development during the previous administration.

"[The report] clearly states that the number correlates with the active work permit total, and it does not state they were the number of expatriates presently residing [in the Maldives]," the Minister added.

The ministry reported links to the reports shared during the previous administration on Sunday, December 17.