Minister of Homeland Security and Technology Ihusan Ali says the government plans to collect the fingerprints of all expatriates living in the Maldives within one year and compile a biometric system.
He said this in response to a question from the MP for Central Maafanu Constituency Ibrahim Rasheed at Parliament today. The MP asked about creating a registry of expatriates for each island, which would show how many migrant workers work there at any given time.
In response, the Minister said the law mandates that the Councils have a registry of migrant workers living on the island, but it was not easy for the councils to do so without access to the existing databases.
Minister Ihusan said that in this regard, the government is now working to collect the biometric data of all the expatriates living in the Maldives within one year and compile one single database.
He further said that councils would be given access to this database, and councils and police stations would be given mobile and fixed fingerprint scanning devices, allowing them to identify each migrant worker who arrives on the island.
The Minister said such a system would allow the Councils to fulfill their obligations mandated by the law. He further said that authorities had noticed on raids and operations that most of the migrants apprehended had no way of identifying themselves and once authorities begin identifying them biometrically, this issue would be resolved.
