Twelve brothels shut down: Home Ministry

Twelve brothels have been shut down in an operation launched by police after President Mohamed Waheed assumed office in February, the Home Ministry has revealed.

In a press release last week, the Home Ministry expressed concern with the extent of prostitution in the Maldives and the involvement of locals in operating the clandestine enterprises.

The press statement did not however name the establishments that have been raided by police and closed down in recent months.

Efforts were underway to amend the relevant laws to impose harsher punishments on those involved in prostitution and operating brothels, the Home Ministry statement added.

In May this year, the Islamic Ministry announced that it was formulating rules and guidelines for registering and operating alternative medicine centres, spas and beauty salons to prevent the use of such establishments as a front for prostitution.

Shutting down spas and massage parlors doubling as brothels was a key demand of a ‘mega protest’ on December 23 organised by eight political parties and religious NGOs to ‘Defend Islam’ against the allegedly liberal policies of the ousted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) government.

Adhaalath Party President Sheikh Imran Abdulla had claimed during the December 23 demonstration that there were over 60 brothels in the Male’ alone, double the number of mosques in the capital.

Briefing press on the first 100 days of the Waheed administration on May 20, Islamic Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed claimed the ministry possessed a list of suspected brothels in inhabited islands, “most of which have already been shut down.”

“There are still suspected places on the list [in operation],” he added.