MCC employed undocumented works, Mayor Azim reveals

In a Male' City Council meeting held on Monday, Mayor Adam Azim stated that it has come to his attention that a number of undocumented workers are living on city council premises.

He said that the proposition in the city council leaders meeting had been to report the case of these workers to the Maldives Immigration Services, adding that it has been put into motion now.

"We observed that approximately 18 undocumented foreign workers are eating, sleeping and living in Male' City Council. We have now notified the Immigration Services about this," he said.

Maafannu West council member Ibrahim Abu Bakr said that the individuals are staff employed in the waste management section of the council, and that they originate from Bangladesh.

"They are employed in the waste department. However, details of how they were appointed, for what reason, for what purpose, and all that, will be known only to those council leaders who were at the meeting [where the decision was made], and participated in making the decision," he said.

"When [the Mayor] just came in and ordered them removed from their posts, they [the Bangladeshi employees] came and told me. Then we called HR and only then did we find out that they are undocumented like you say," he explained.

However, he noted that they had been brought to City Council after being informed that employment at the council would be arranged for them.

"They were told that they would be made City Council employees within three months, and they were transferred here from a company with their permission, they only knew that a company would be arranging salaries after issues arose around that," Ibrahim said.

He alleges that the leadership of the City Council at that time had been involved in making these arrangements. Ibrahim claims that it will be an injustice on to the individuals to dismiss them from their jobs without notice.

"If we are to say undocumented people, there will not be anyone [a foreigner] there [at the Male' City Council] who can drive a vehicle, there will not be anyone with a license. But we call the police themselves and tell them we are sending out a vehicle and then send these persons," he went on.

At the time, the council had also taken over the cleaning of streets. This led to increased rifts between the council and Wamco, resulting in waste being left on the streets for days uncollected by either entity.

Last year, the council took up the responsibility for cleaning and collecting waste from public areas in Male' and Villimale'.

Earlier an agreement had been made Wamco to clean and remove waste from parks and outdoor areas in Male'. The Council decided to not renew it.

As a result, Wamco stopped collecting waste from the streets.

At the time, current President Dr Mohamed Muizzu was serving as the Mayor. The council decided at the time to not renew the contract, claiming that Wamco did not conduct its duties in a satisfactory manner. This is when the council hired their own staff and established its own waste management department.