Slavery and Discrimination in the Paradise

Anyone who first hears about the word Maldives, the first thing that comes into their mind is the beautiful paradise on earth. Of course, this is very true for the tourists who come to spend their honeymoon or to enjoy their dreamed vacation in the beautiful white sandy beach of Maldives.

On the other side of the islands, there are people who see this Maldives as a misery place to live and work. Locals have seen this horrific scene in the capital city Male’, which is just only two square kilometers of landmass. The capital city is one of the dense populated pieces of land on the earth living more than one third of the country’s population. Official figures estimated that there are more than 80,000 foreign workers living in the Maldives and estimated half of that number lives in the capital Male’.

It is not difficult to find the foreigners especially during the weekend. Friday is the special day for the foreigners. They roam around Male’ and neighbouring islands just to spend the day with their friends to catch up for the week.

We find many houses in Male’ packed with tens of people living in the worst condition. In one of the houses we visited, people were packed in small rooms and sleep in four to six hour shift to accommodate others who are waiting in queues for their turns to take precious moment of rest. We also have seen the same scene in southern atolls with treatments little bit better than Male’.

atollcounselor’s™ chief contributor in southern atolls reported that the conditions are so poor where foreigners live in dire conditions without monthly wages and at times send back home with empty hands if complained. “Some people are not getting even 100 dollars which is less than their monthly average back in their own countries” chief contributor said.

When we deeply analyze this issue the responsibility lies with the Maldivian governments. The concerned authorities failed to monitor the foreign labour force whilst on daily basis bringing more labours into the country from the neighbouring states without considering the socioeconomic drawbacks. The recruiting agencies, local companies and individuals bring foreigners into the country just for the sake of their short term benefits. After sometimes, foreigners escape from their masters’ care due to their unexpected expectations resulting foreigners wander around the country illegally without much notice.

The law enforcement authorities should to be restructured to accommodate a transparent system eradicating corruption as a root cause of the current crisis. Authorities must have an improved monitoring system to oversee the treatments of the foreign labour force whether personnel are been treated humanly as per their contracts terms and conditions. Aligned with, an independent panel must be created to investigate labourers’ complaints and justice should be brought against any unfair dealings.

Finally, to boost our economy the government needs to create a skilled labour force such as carpenters, welders, builders and tradesmen. This will help to minimize the dependency on foreign workers whereas diminish the socioeconomic problems in the long run. “To commence this task it is not difficult to find people from our own community where we find school leavers who wander around the community ends up in jail with criminal or drug related offences” government official who is anonymous recommended to the atollcounselor™.