Bangladesh urges Maldives to ‘legalise’ illegal Bangladeshi workers

The health minister has urged the Maldives’ junior health minister to legalise ‘illegal’ Bangladeshi workers in Male and bring them under health coverage.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 10 Sept 2014, 03:05 PM
Updated : 10 Sept 2014, 03:05 PM

Mohammad Nasim met Hussain Rasheed on Wednesday on the sidelines of the ongoing WHO regional meeting in Dhaka.

Bangladesh signed an MoU with Maldives on Tuesday for collaboration in the medical sector including sale of medicines.

Maldives recently shut down its embassy in Dhaka due to the country’s “unprecedented fiscal problems".

Bangladeshis with more than 70 percent of its total 111,000 expatriate workers dominate the market there.

File Photo

However, during the meeting the junior minister Rasheed raised the issue of “illegal” Bangladeshi workers living in the Maldives.
“I urged him to legalise them,” Nasim told journalists after the meeting, “I also urged him to bring them under health coverage”.
The Maldives offer health insurance to its people.
Health minister Nasim also met his Bhutanese counterpart Tandin Wangchuk on Wednesday.