Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail says the country's expatriate population has now reached 281,000.
He said this while answering questions posed to him by the members of the parliament after he was summoned to the legislative house to give information on illegal foreigners living in the country.
Answering questions by MP for Medhu Henveiru Constituency Ali Azim, Minister Fayyaz noted that most recently updated statistics show that 281,000 expatriates currently live in the country.
The Minister also said that out of this number, records show that 63,754 are Bangladeshis. He also said that this number would be closer to 100,000 if the number of illegal expatriates from Bangladesh as well as those whose status is not confirmed is included.
Minister Fayyaz also gave a clear picture of how many permits were issued to bring in expatriates during the tenure of former President Abdullah Yameen and the current administration.
Fayyaz said that between 2013 to 2018, 115,800 permits were issued to bring in Bangladeshi expatriates.
In comparison, Minister Fayyaz said that between 2019 to 2021 the current government only issued 11,113 permits.
He said that between 2013 to 2018, 43,100 permits were issued to bring in Indian migrants into the country while between 2019 and 2021, 23,000 permits were issued to bring in Indian nationals.
