Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Maldives.htm
The Maldives is
primarily a destination country for migrant workers from Bangladesh and India
trafficked into forced labor and, to a lesser extent, a destination country
for women trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. An
unknown number of the 80,000 foreign workers currently working in the
Maldives – primarily in the construction and service sectors –face fraudulent
recruitment practices, confinement, confiscation of identity and travel
documents, debt bondage, or general slave-like conditions. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check
out a latert country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Maldives. Some of these links may lead to websites that
present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt
has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you
like to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Human trafficking
in the maldivesdissent.blogspot.com/2009/03/human-trafficking-in-maldives.html [accessed 20
February 2011] The Human Rights
Commission of the But the
dispossessed labourers found themselves in a place that couldn't have been
more different to their dreams. Without proper documents they were unable to
report to the police and susceptible to exploitation and extortion by
unscrupulous Maldivians. ***
ARCHIVES *** Police accuse RIX
of exploiting expats, human trafficking violations [Cstegory
– Labor - Adult ] Ahmed Aiham, The Edition, 6 July 2020 [accessed 9 July
2020] Maldives Police
Service, on Monday, accused RIX Company Pvt Ltd of
human trafficking, as well as exploiting its foreign workers. Over 200 expatriate
workers partook in protests over their employer's failure to pay six months
of salary, which culminated in the holding of 13 Maldivian staff hostage at Bodufinolhu, Baa Atoll - an island being developed as a
resort property. Moreover, police
noted that the company had sourced trafficked expatriates from various
islands and coerced employees to continue working with their wages withheld
for long periods of time. RIX Maldives
claimed that it was unable to pay salaries after Seal Maldives' failure to
make payments for four months from January 2020 onwards. The allegations
were denied by Seal Maldives, which asserted that it had paid a total of MVR
21,773,338 to RIX Maldives upon completion of the contracted project,
although the initial agreement stipulated a payment of MVR 12,332,765. The
surplus was attributed to the cost of funding additional work. Seal Maldives stated that there was no
reason obstructing RIX from making payroll, and accused the company of
neglect. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Maldives U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/maldives/
[accessed 15 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR As of August
Maldives Immigration reported the number of documented foreign workers at
approximately 117,000. It estimated an additional 63,000 undocumented foreign
workers in the country, predominantly men from Bangladesh and other South
Asian countries. Some of the foreign workers in the country were subject to
forced labor in the construction and tourism sectors. Both the LRA and NGOs
noted a continuing trend of resorts hiring third party subcontractors to work
in departments such as maintenance, landscaping, and laundry services. These
subcontractors reportedly hired undocumented migrant workers who received a
lower salary, work longer hours, and often experience delays in payment of
salaries and work without a legal employment contract. Most victims of forced
labor suffered the following practices: debt bondage, holding of passports by
employers, fraudulent offers of employment, not being paid the promised
salary, or not being paid at all. Domestic workers, especially migrant female
domestic workers, were sometimes trapped in forced servitude, in which
employers used threats, intimidation, and in some cases sexual violence to
prevent them from leaving. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT According to the
LRA, the MPS and the Ministry of Gender, Family, and Social Services none of
the complaints received related to child labor or employment of minors, but
the MPS and Ministry of Gender received reports of children engaged in the
worst forms of child labor such as being used for the purpose of commercial
sexual exploitation and the transport of drugs for criminal gangs. NGOs
reported children were also engaged in forced labor in domestic work. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/maldives/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? The legal framework
provides some protections against worker exploitation, including rules on
working hours and bans on forced labor. However, migrant workers are
especially vulnerable to abuses such as debt bondage and withholding of
wages. Women and children working in domestic service may also be subject to
exploitative conditions. 2017 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018 www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf [accessed 18 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 3 May
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 648] Although research
is limited, there is evidence that children in Maldives engage in the worst
forms of child labor, including in commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes
as a result of trafficking. (1; 2; 3) No current data are
available on child labor in Maldives, and a national survey on child labor has
not been conducted. Some girls from Bangladesh and Maldives are trafficked
for commercial sexual exploitation to Malé, the
capital of Maldives, but evidence of the problem is limited. (3). The underclass: the
dark side of labour migration www.minivannews.com/news_detail.php?id=6143 [access date
unavailable] ROSY PICTURE
- Jeehan says workers are sometimes “given a different picture and find
themselves in a situation for which they weren’t prepared. Some get on a
plane to go to Malaysia and end up in the Maldives.” Most workers, she adds, arrive in the
country with valid work permits but are abandoned by sponsors and have no
other method of renewing their visas. “They don’t purposefully come as
illegal workers,” she says. “It’s fraud and no one is accountable.” It is not hard to come by a story of a
construction worker, who lured with a promise of a well-paid job in sunny
Maldives, willingly mortgages his house or takes out a second loan to pay
between US$2,000 to US$3,000 to a broker to facilitate his travel
arrangements as well as secure him a lucrative job. Instead, many end up living in cramped
quarters with low wages, if they are paid at all. Some are stranded at the
airport and left to fend for themselves without even their passports in their
possession, says Ajwad Ali, permanent secretary of the labour ministry. The Protection
Project - The Maldives [DOC] The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/maldives.doc [accessed 2009] GOVERNMENT
RESPONSES
– According to the ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/sca/119137.htm [accessed 10
February 2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The law did not prohibit trafficking in persons; however, there were no
reports that persons were trafficked to, from, through,
or within the country. SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] Child labor was a problem in fishing, small commercial activities, and
family enterprises. The Child Protection Unit of the Ministry of Health and
Family was responsible for monitoring compliance with the law. The Ministry
of Health and Family, the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth and Sports, and
the Family and Child Protection Unit of Maldives Police Service received
complaints of child labor, conducted inquiries, and initiated legal action
when necessary. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
