Maldives Immigration says it cannot ban Israelis holding passports of other countries from entering the Maldives as the Authority gave its counsel on the bill to ban Israelis from entering the island nation.
The amendment was submitted to the Parliament by the MP for Galolhu South Constituency Meekail Mohamed Naseem last May as a way to protest against the Israeli state's continuous genocide in the Occupied Palestinian territories.
MP Meekail proposed bringing amendments to Article 8 of the Immigration Act. This Article details people who do not have a permit for entry into the Maldives. The MP wants to add additional subsections to the Article.
The amendment was accepted by the Parliament in June and forwarded to the Security Services Committee where its work has been stagnant much to the ire of the public.
At today's committee meeting, the administrative desk read out the counsel from the Immigration regarding the proposed amendment.
Immigration said that it cannot ban Israelis who hold passports from other countries from entering the country. It said one of the reasons for this is that the Immigration would look at the passport a person is presenting when entering the country. It also said that the Immigration cannot dual or more passport holders.
For these reasons, the Immigration proposed banning only Israeli passport holders from entering the Maldives.
The Chairman of the Committee, MP for Eydhafushi Constituency Ahmed Saleem signaled that the Commitee work on the amendment could be wrapped up today but indicated that it would be first seeking counsel from the Attorney General's Office before finalizing a report.
