Maldivian authorities say they plan to arrest and deport Bangladeshi nationals involved in organizing a peaceful protest in the southern atoll of G.Dh. Thinadhoo.
The July 25 protest was held, like many others across the region, after a recent crackdown by security forces on student protests in Bangladesh, with more than 200 people killed and thousands injured in the clashes that followed.
Minister of Homeland Security and Technology Ali Ihusaan accused the protesters of breaching a visa condition prohibiting migrants from engaging in any “political activities.” This condition violates the right to peaceful assembly under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Maldives is a party. The Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that provides authoritative interpretations of the covenant, has stated: “Everyone has the right of peaceful assembly: citizens and non-citizens alike,” including foreign nationals, documented and undocumented migrants, and asylum seekers.
Rights groups have called on the Maldives’ government to revoke the decision to arrest and deport Bangladeshi nationals involved in the protest and “uphold constitutional and international human rights conventions.”
The Maldives has the highest proportion of foreign migrant laborers in South Asia, primarily from Bangladesh and India, including tens of thousands of undocumented migrants. Migrant workers in the Maldives face a range of entrenched abuses from employers, including deceptive recruitment practices, wage theft, passport confiscation, unsafe living and working conditions, and excessive work demands, which may amount to forced labor and violate domestic and international law.
In mid-July, Maldivian immigration authorities announced that more than 2,000 immigrants had been deported from the country since November 2023 under President Mohamed Muizzu. This crackdown included numerous raids on private homes and workplaces.
The Maldivian government should uphold the fundamental rights of migrants. Reversing its decision to arrest and deport Bangladeshi nationals for peacefully protesting would be a good place to start. The next step would be ratifying the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The Maldives depends on them.
