The regulation on regularizing undocumented workers has been revised and published in the government gazette.
The expatriate employment regulation which came into effect in 2021 was revised and published in the gazette on 24 May.
Under the amended rules, expats who apply for regularization will be accepted if they have not violated any employment rules.
It also states that a former employer can offer to be liable to an expatriate that wishes to enter the regularization program.
Expats who apply for regularization must have entered the country through legal means even if they have not obtained other necessary documentation.
The new rules also stipulate that the employer must produce them when summoned by the economic ministry for identity verification.
If the expat does not cooperate in the verification process, they cannot join the regularization program and face being sent back to their home country.
The regularization program was launched in September 2019 to tackle the issue of undocumented workers.
Some 43,787 expatriate workers initially registered under the program claiming that they were working in the Maldives without a valid work permit.
The economic ministry says that an immense effort was put into the regularization program over the past three years.
“A total of 16,351 regularization requests have been approved by August 2022,” the economic ministry stated.
“A total of 8,938 have voluntarily returned to their home country, under the voluntary return program.”
