President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has ordered the Fisheries Ministry to compile and submit a detailed report of the events that led to the authorities putting down 120 birds that were initially imported illegally into the country.
With the images of the downed birds circulating on social media, the President's Office was forced to issue a short statement on the matter which said that the President had now ordered the Ministry to submit a detailed report on the matter to his office.
The President's Office did not specify when it expects the report from the Ministry. But the case has now been taken to the parliament as many on social media have been criticizing the Ministry for its decision.
News of the bird killings has taken the nation by storm as authorities scrambled to validate their decision to put down the birds which were illegal when they were first imported back in October.
But then authorities had published a new list of Birds that are deemed legal in the Maldives and that the birds in question had fallen under the new list.
The Ministry had sought a recommendation from the Attorney General to clarify the technicalities regarding the bird shipment. The Ministry noted that it took the AG office two months to reply back to the request and that it had said that since the birds were illegal when they were initially imported, the Ministry should take action based on these premises.
Speaking to 'The Press', an official from the Ministry said that it had confiscated illegal plants and animals imported to the Maldives before and that this time it had exhausted all other options before opting to put the birds down.
The Ministry had said that they had put down four shipments of illegally imported birds and had notified the importers before they had killed birds.
It said that the Ministry had given the importers the option of re-exporting the shipments before the birds were put down but the importers had chosen not to take that option.
