Weekend roundup: Undocumented migrant workers fill up stadium

The government launched the six-month programme to register irregular migrants last month after banning the recruitment of unskilled Bangladeshi workers for one year. An estimated 63,000 foreign nationals work in the Maldives illegally out of a migrant worker population of 144,600, predominantly Bangladeshi and Indian men who work in the construction and tourism industries.

After long lines stretched outside its registration office in the capital, the economic development ministry started using the Galolhu stadium on Saturdays. But the registration progress did not continue last Saturday and hundreds of workers resumed queuing outside the office on Majeedhee Magu.