The State Trading Organisation (STO) will lift price controls on potatoes, onions and eggs, as well as rationing the commodities on a per-head basis.
“We’re trying to lift the control tomorrow as we received a new shipment of the goods last night which is being cleared from customs,” Managing Director Shahid Ali told Haveeru.
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(0)An ongoing police investigation into labour trafficking in the Maldives has uncovered an industry worth an estimated US$123 million, eclipsing fishing (US$46 million in 2007) as the second greatest contributor of foreign currency to the Maldivian economy after tourism.
The authorities’ findings echo those first raised by former Bangladeshi High Commissioner Dr Selina Mohsin, reported by Minivan News in August last year, and which saw the country placed on the US State Department’s Tier 2 watchlist for human trafficking.
However prior to the current investigation, ordered by President Mohamed Nasheed and which involved the military taking over immigration and human resources duties for a two week period, few facts were known about the Maldivian side of the operation.
“People have been creating fraudulent companies and using them to apply for fraudulent work permit quotas, and then diverting these quotas to keep bringing in illegal workers,” said President Nasheed’s Spokesperson, Mohamed Zuhair.
“A would-be worker [overseas] pays money and ends up here on fraudulent papers obtained by a bogus agent, from quotas at a non-existent company,” Zuhair said. “Sometimes they are expected to work for 3-4 years to make the payment – workers have told police that this is often as much as US$2000.”
Authorities currently estimated the industry to be worth US$123 million a year, he said.
Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam told Minivan News that many illegal workers identified by police through the investigation – the majority from Bangladesh – had sold their land, their property and moved their families to pay the fees demanded by the bogus recruiters.
When they arrive they find the job a totally different prospect from what they were led to expect, he said.
“Sometimes there is no job and they are released straight onto the street. We found some people who had paid before coming – they arrived at the airport and nobody came to pick them up,” said Shiyam. ”The case is very serious – this is not the way things should be, and it has been going on for a long time.”
Zuhair said that in some cases workers brought to the Maldives were themselves recruited to help enlist others from their country – in addition to seven Maldivians, 12 expatriates have been arrested during the case so far.
Paper companies and ministerial corruption
The expansive investigation has seen 18 ‘paper companies’ raided by the police commercial crime unit, headed by Inspector Mohamed Riyaz, who revealed to the media last week that police had seized 4000 passports confiscated from trafficked workers.
Two of the seven bogus companies identified as trafficking workers, Ozone Investments Pvt Ltd and Arisco Maldives Pvt Ltd, had brought in 3000 workers between them.
Using the fake companies, the traffickers fraudulently obtained work permit quotas for non-existent projects from the Human Resources Ministry by stealing the identities of unwitting Maldivians, or even the deceased. Police had received many complaints about such forgeries from the confused third party, Riyaz told the media.
Moreover, many of the quotas requested from the Human Resources Ministry had been approved despite obvious warning signs such as the importing of construction workers for specialised IT projects, Riyaz said.
Zuhair told Minivan News that while he was unable to “point fingers” as the investigation was ongoing, the current findings implicated senior officials in both the Immigration Department and the Ministry of Human Resources.
In addition, the persistent use of fraudulent companies implied further scrutiny of the Ministry of Trade was required, Zuhair said.
Trade Minister Mahmoud Razee confirmed to Minivan News that the Ministry was providing information to police as requested. Establishing a company in the Maldives carried few requirements under existing laws, he explained, “and even before this we have been proposing amendments to company law to require additional clearances for directors, based on their records.”
Even for those individuals found guilty of the crime labour trafficking presently represents a violation of the Employment Act, and only carries a small fine.
Zuhair said punishment was a matter for the judiciary “and I’m confident justice will be done”. However he acknowledged that the greatest impact would come from exposing those involved: “The people involved will be named and shamed,” he pledged, which would limit their capacity for further fraud or criminal enterprise and hopefully ward off further victims.
The investigation was ordered by the President, he noted, as the Immigration Department and the Human Resources Ministry “were each accusing the other for the problem. The government has stepped in as a neutral party to conduct a holistic investigation, without incrimination.”
He said the government would need to “seek assistance” to deport the large numbers of illegal workers the investigation was likely to uncover.
“The origin countries also have a responsibility to repatriate their nationals,” he said.
Minivan News asked Zuhair why the government had only acted after several years of accusations that labor trafficking was prolific in the country – the US State Department recently renewed the Maldives’ position on the trafficking watch list for the second year running.
“The accusations have been apparent for the last few years, but the extent to which the situation has developed, and the lines between system error, human error and intentional fraud have been unclear. It has now become clearer,” he said.
(0)Dislikes(0)An expatriate worker has died of dengue haemorrhagic fever, after being infected on Konottaa in Gaaf Dhaal Atoll.
The 37 year-old Indian national died during treatment at Thinadhoo Regional Hospital.
“He died of dengue shock syndrome less than three hours into treatment,” hospital overseer Aminath Abdul Hakeem told Haveeru.
Five more workers from the island tested positive to the disease, and were treated at the hospital.
Meanwhile, a team from Thinadhoo was dispatched to destroy breeding grounds and fog the island, which is being developed as a resort.
Nine people have died of the mosquito-borne disease this year.
(0)Dislikes(0)Airport architecture and engineering firm ADPI has unveiled new images of the design for Male’ International Airport, which is being developed by Indian infrastructure giant GMR.
The existing terminal is being upgraded before the construction of a new terminal on the opposite side of the island of Hulhule, which the developer has pledged to complete in 2014.
As well as being a visually dramatic structure on the skyline, the new airport will include various sustainability initiatives such as seawater air-conditioning.
Ultimately the development will involve 45,000 square metres of new terminal, repair and expansion of the runway, parking and taxiing space, and a turning point so more flights can be landed in the space of an hour.
The infrastructure giant’s ‘brownfields’ approach – refurbishing an active airport, as opposed to a ‘greenfields’ or ‘from scratch’ project – mirrors that of its much larger airport development in Dehli. The old terminal was upgraded prior to the opening of the new one last week, which is now expected to cater to 90 percent of the airport’s passengers, with capacity of 34 million per annum upgradable to 100 million.
At over US$400 million the project is the largest single foreign investment ever made in the Maldives and has run into political controversy, including persistent allegations from opposition parties that there was corruption in the bidding process, and several referrals to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
“There has been no formal communication [with the ACC], and we are extremely confident of standing up to any scrutiny because of the way the bid was scrutinised by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC),” CEO Andrew Harrison told Minivan News in an interview in March, setting a target for the completion of the refurbishment in October.
The refurbishment is “essentially throw-away” considering it will have less than a three year lifespan until the new terminal is completed in 2014, Harrison told Minivan News at the time, but will include a food court and a raised ceiling in arrivals so tourists can see the sea as they emerge from the gate.
Besides ongoing upgrade work and staff training exercises, recent developments include the signing of a US$140 million contract with the State Trading Organisation (STO) to supply fuel, switching the contract over from Dubai-based Galana Petroleum.
More recently, the government announced that the airport was to be renamed after former President Ibrahim Nasir, who ordered its construction during his rule.
(0)Dislikes(0)Maldivian flag carrier Mega Maldives has completed its maiden flight from Shanghai to Male, the first Maldivian carrier to make the journey.
The flight landed at 12:50pm on Saturday with 200 passengers. Mega Maldives claims it is the only such service from China to arrive in the daytime, allowing more convenient connections to resorts by domestic air and sea transfer.
Mega completed its first international flight between Hong Kong and Gan in January this year, delivering over 230 passengers to resorts in the southern atolls.
It now employs over 100 Maldivian staff and plans to launch a non-stop flights between Beijing and Male’ on July 22 and a fourth route, Male’ to Seoul, Korea, in September, with the lease of a second aircraft.
Mega Maldives Airlines is a source of great pride to the island Republic of Maldives, as we carry the national flag and the Maldivian brand globally, leading the drive in the on-going development of Maldivian aviation, tourism and trade,” the airline said in a statement.
Mega has capitalised on the booming tourism market in China, and the keen interest displayed in the Maldives as a destination by Chinese charter companies.
Speaking to Minivan News in January following the airline’s maiden flight the airline’s CEO George Weinmann, a former rocket and satellite engineer with aerospace giant Boeing, said it was a mistake to think that the boom in Chinese tourist arrivals was an anomaly.
The belief, persistent among some resort operators, perhaps stems from the trend among many Chinese guests to stay 2-3 days, while their European counterparts log an average of 10-14 days per visit.
“I don’t agree with that idea at all,” says Weinmann. “It’s a little like going back to the 1950s and saying that while the US is making a resurgence, Europe is still the place to be.”
The Chinese, he said, had become one of the biggest-spending tourism demographics in destinations such as France, with a per-person spend “substantially higher that most other [nationalities] visiting the EU. That was not a fluke – it was developed over five years.”
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Mark Gooding: I’ve been covering the Maldives for just over three years. My first visit was in the middle of 2008, and we were discussing with the government the passing of the new constitution and the passage to multi-party elections. There was real uncertainty then.
The Maldives passed the new constitution and held successful elections – which were considered credible, free and fair – and is now in the process of consolidating democracy. That means establishing the institutions of democracy and passing legislation necessary to implement the new constitution. Clearly the process has been smooth at times and not smooth at other times. That’s democracy.
There is important legislation that needs to be passed by the Majlis – such as the penal code, the tax reform bill, and these are issues of significant national interest. These need to be addressed by both parties.
JJ: As somebody who has observed the corridors of power in the Maldives for three years, how much political will have you seen towards consolidating democracy, and do you think that this political will is necessarily unanimous across the country’s senior leadership?
MG: Honestly I think there is a large degree of political will. All of the parties participate actively in the democratic processes that exist, and I think that is very important. All parties recognise the need for legalisation to be passed to implement the constitution and broaden existing legislation to make it reflect the challenges of the day.
I think there is cross-party support for this – for the need to enact the legislation and broad support for functioning democratic institutions – be it parliament or police. People understand these are big challenges and that it is in the national interest for them to function effectively.
There are obviously questions that arise in parliament while the details get sorted out. But by and large people agree on the overall objective which is a functioning democracy.
JJ: As an outsider with a perspective on the Maldives both now and how it was three years ago, to what extent do you think that new democratic freedoms – such as those pertaining to human rights, and freedom of expression – to what extent have these freedoms ‘trickled down’ to the average citizen, as opposed to remaining buzzwords paraded at a diplomatic level?
MG: I think to a large extent. One very obvious change is that people can go out and vote now, and there are election campaigns. There was a huge amount of voter awareness work done in 2008. People are increasingly aware of the freedoms they now have – from voting to access to different kinds of media, and an increasingly active civil society.
People’s awareness of their democratic space has increased, and it certainly has in the time I’ve been working with the Maldives.
JJ: What is the extent of the engagement the UK High Commission has had with the government here?
MG: We have very close cooperation with the Maldives government on a range of issues. Obviously the history of the Maldives’ and the UK means we have enjoyed a close relationship this government and the last government. We have a lot of cooperation on global issues such as climate, trade and combating terrorism. There a lot of political dialogue there, also on domestic development in Maldives. The UK was a strong supporter of democratisation in the Maldives.
Practical assistance over the last few years has included the funding of economic specialists to advise the government on dealing with the financial and economic challenges faced, funding of police officers and specialists to develop the police, and we have funded capacity-building of the judiciary and the UN project in that respect.
We would like to build more contact between the Majlis and our own parliament.
JJ: In terms of future involvement with the Maldives, the country has graduated from a least developed country to a middle income country, and other countries reviewing their engagement with the Maldives perhaps now regard it as better able to fend for itself as a result. Does the graduation affect the UK’s engagement with the Maldives?
MG: We don’t have a bilateral development program in Maldives, and in that respect the project work hasn’t changed. In fact we increased project funding in the Maldives, although that had nothing to do with LDC status. There is no short answer. Clearly part of our dialogue with the government is that we strongly supported and the EU co-sponsored a UN resolution on the transition for LDC countries. This was a priority for [the Maldives] government and we were very happy to support it in an international forum.
JJ: Regular comments on Minivan News suggest a great deal of interest in why countries not just in the region, such as India, but those on the other side of the world such as the UK and US, have such an interest in a small island nation of 350,000 in the Indian Ocean that has existed in relative isolation for hundreds of years. Why do you think there is such strong international interest in the Maldives?
MG: There are a number of clear answers from the UK perspective. The UK has a close historical relationship with the Maldives and we regard the Maldives as our friends, and we want to support democratisation here. It is important that succeeds.
There are also 120,000 British tourists visit each year. We look after British nationals who are in the Maldives and we want them to have a positive experience. We also have very close cooperation with the government on climate policy – a serious issue for the Maldives, as climate change clearly could have a devastating impact on the country.
JJ: Concerns are sometimes aired locally that the government’s climate leadership in the international community has not resulted in much impact or change in local communities – many beaches are still routinely used as waste disposal sites, for example. Do you think climate leadership is being passed on locally?
MG: You have to realise that international climate negotiations are incredibly complex and that every country has its own unique situation, and opportunities to introduce low carbon technology. It is not a straight-forward negotiation.
If people are feeling the effects of climate change, extreme weather and beach erosion – rather than just rubbish on the beach – I would say that is a reason to keep arguing for an ambitious global deal on climate change. It would be counter-intuitive to suggest the government should be doing less to secure a climate deal.
The Maldives is an important player both because of its political position on climate change, but also because of its vulnerability. It does have a unique geography, and the potential impact js quite extreme. The Maldives is a significant player in international climate debate.
JJ: While there is a feeling pride in the Maldives’ new democracy, people associated things like rising crime and economic instability with new the democracy and that seems to risk affecting support for democracy as a concept. What do you see as the key challenges for the country, going ahead?
MG: Of course people are absolutely aware of the challenges that exist. They include criminality, drugs and gang violence. There are issues with radicalisation, and economic challenges that the Maldives has faced, like many other countries. Those are challenges that exist already, before implementing the legislation required by the new constitution. So of course there are big challenges and there is a need for national debate.
The interest here is making institutions function effectively as per any democracy. If a country has an effective police service, then action against gang violence is possible. If institutions fail, clearly the situation becomes worse.
JJ: The executive, judiciary and parliament have been busily testing the boundaries of the new constitution. Based on three years of watching this happen, do you think they are showing signs of settling into their functions and working together?
MG: It certainly remains a challenge, and it has not always been smooth. The institutions identify how much power they have and how it is exercised. We had problems last year between the Majlis and executive, but those were overcome. The parties have shown that at times they can work together and make institutions function.
JJ: The Maldives has a traditional and persistent culture of patronage, a society structured around senior figures who provide things such as medical treatment, scholarships, education and so on, be it a katheeb or an MP. In fact MPs quite openly admit to spending their salaries on funding financial demands from their constituents. Given that the culture is so deeply rooted in patronage, do you think there is hope that principles such as equality necessary for democracy can be applied in the Maldives?
MG: In a democracy it’s up to the people how they are governed. What you’re asking really is what level of power should be appropriate at island, regional and national level. Absolutely that is a debate that happens, and that is a debate people need to have. What is true in democracy is that power structures need to be held to account in both their decision making and their expenditure. Those are important principles to emphasize.
JJ: The recently changing of party affiliations parties among MPs has seen parliament be unfavourably compared to a “football transfer market”, and the MDP in particular seems to have embraced a new pragmatism in search of a parliamentary majority. Do you think there is a risk that by importing the odd skeleton in the cupboard that the party risks disengaging from the idealistic roots that made it into a political force capable of changing an entrenched government?
MG: I think there is a reality that when you are in government you need to focus on the ability to make decisions and exercise authority in an accountable way. I think it is possible to do that in a way that upholds principles. Certainly in our meeting with the President this morning he was very clear about this. There was no doubt about those principles. Clearly people in positions of power should be subject to public scrutiny.
JJ: The Maldives has been quick to use its platform in the UN Human Rights Council to denounce war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Middle East committed by countries such as Libya, but has taken a much gentler stance with Sri Lanka despite UN allegations about such crimes committed in the closing days of the civil war. What is the UK’s view on Sri Lanka, and how can the Maldives contribute to secure and progressive Sri Lanka in the future?
MG: The UK’s position on Sri Lanka is very clear: the need of the hour is reconciliation. In Sri Lanka reconciliation requires a number of things – humanitarian relief is one, but also progress on a political settlement. We believe there are serious allegations which are contained in the UN Panel report that need to be looked into – for us this is a very common sense position.
The Sri Lankan government has set up a reconciliation commission which is looking into a variety of issues in the later years of the war. We think it is important that do that and we encourage the government to do that.
JJ: There is the possibility that an internationally-sponsored investigation would require backing from the Human Rights Council. Does this place Maldives in a difficult position if it comes to a vote?
MG: There are a number processes in train in Sri Lanka, such as the lessons learned reconciliation report due in November. I think the world is watching in terms of what these processes will produce. At that point, we able to see whether other options are necessary. We encourage the government to look at these issues.
(0)Dislikes(0)A policeman has been arrested for allegedly blackmailing a woman on Kulhudhufushi in Haa Dhaal Atoll by putting her photograph on a pornographic image.
Haveeru reported that the man was in custody.
“We’re investigating the matter now. The man is from the island and the woman also lives in the island. It is of extreme disappointment that such an act was carried out by a policeman and we’re taking the matter very seriously,” a police spokesperson told Haveeru.
Haveeru spoke to the victim’s husband, who said the police officer had been blackmailing her for several days and that it “a lot of hard work” for her to escape by reporting the matter to police.
(0)Dislikes(0)The country is broke and the price of living is going up every day while the standard of living is going down.
The price of a can of tuna is now 20 percent higher than it was a few months ago. A valhoa mas kiba, part of our staple food since time immemorial, is now beyond the common person’s reach. A bottle of water was Rf10 just a month ago; it is Rf14 this month.
Electricity bills, water bills, gas bills, are all hugely more expensive than any other country in the neighbourhood. A majority of people are living hand to mouth.
A vast chunk of the country’s youth population are either addicted to drugs or recovering from it. They are unemployable, and out on the streets, committing crimes big and small or looking in vain for another chance at life.
The standards of teaching in public schools are abysmal, and private schools remain an unaffordable dream for the majority. To say that public schools are free is to lie through one’s teeth; for people are paying through their noses for private tuition – a parallel education system that exists in a parallel universe. It is the elephant in every classroom that nobody in authority wants to talk about – the government cannot regulate it without first acknowledging the massive failings in the education system; and a majority of the teachers do not want to talk about it because it is the cash cow that supplements their meagre incomes.
Children from other islands are having to migrate to Male’, boarding with host families or packed into small rooms the rent of which they share; paid by parents who break their backs working on farms or on fishing boats, just so their children can get an education. The housing crisis and social problems related to overcrowding increase.
The health system is too weak to cope with any unexpected outbreaks of disease; Maldivian doctors are still the minority and are offered less pay and benefits than their expatriate counterparts; and infant and adult mortality rates are needlessly high. It was all too clear to see with the recent dengue fever outbreak.
Unemployment rates are sky-high while trafficked Bangladeshis are bought and sold by the planeload. They live in their scores of thousands working and living on building sites; existing in an alternate realm of worker drones, buzzing away in the background, building, serving, cooking, cleaning, maintaining; jobs that Maldivians consider themselves too good to be doing.
Their presence is acknowledged only when the buzzing gets annoying; when their levels of ‘civilisation’ are deemed not to match our allegedly impeccable manners and faultless social graces; and when foreign governments chastise the Maldives for its cruelty for putting a price on the heads of human beings and selling them to the highest bidder.
Longstanding traditions of peace, friendliness and cleanliness have disappeared; replaced with avarice and aspirations of grandeur achieved by any means possible. Basic civility, let alone friendliness, is conspicuous in its absence: the smile; the queue; the exchange of niceties; respect for the elderly; the weak and the vulnerable; the knowledge of belonging together – what are they? People push, shove and climb over each other to get to an undefined ‘there’ faster than anyone else – literally and metaphorically.
It is all there to see in the pantomime that the Majlis is enacting, fiddling with democracy as society burns. What is the purpose of these theatrics? Are we supposed to be impressed with his behaviour? Are we supposed to admire this display of ignorance as ‘people power’? Is this to be seen as standing up (or sitting down) for the rule of law? Are we supposed to applaud these MPs for their ‘valour’ in forcing a needless confrontation between legislative and military power?
Are we supposed to cheer in adulation or tremble in fear when one MP who was only recently bought by one party now shouts at the party he had just left?
Are we to ignore the fact that if such members did indeed have an ideology, or a set of deeply held political beliefs or values they would not be so easily bought and sold?
Are we supposed to laugh with them and chuckle at the smirks on their faces when they are being led away by the army? Are we supposed to let our children hear the filth that is sprouting from their mouths into our airwaves on daytime TV? Are we to appreciate as media savvy the manner in which, like a bunch of schoolboy bullies in a playground, they are taking photographs and videos of each other being bundled away by men in army fatigues?
Are we supposed to be appreciate as role models of feminism the female voices heard screeching like cockatoos at the spectacle of MPs being carried away like chimpanzees by zoo handlers? What exactly is being celebrated here? What state will our nation be in the coming years if these are our highest representatives, if this is the pinnacle of success that our children as future leaders can aspire to?
Whatever destruction that three decades of dictatorship could not unleash on our society with its ruinous policies, society is wreaking upon itself. We did not have a transition to democracy, we just changed one supreme power to which we subjugate ourselves for another: Mammon for Maumoon.
The Majlis should be where the people turn to for solutions to their problems. It is, however, both the representation of all our problems as well as their nucleus and their source.
What a sham.
All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]
(0)Dislikes(0)Police have destroyed 45 grams of heroine, 35 grams of cannabis, 21 bottles of alcohol, 97 cans of beer and four 500ml bottles of alcohol following a series of confiscations in Dhoonidhoo on Kaafu Atoll.
Haveeru reported that the seized drugs related to 36 cases that had not entered the prosecution process.
Assistant Police Commissioner Mohamed Sodig said no suspects were arrested in the cases.
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