In 2010, the Maldives was primarily a destination country for migrant workers from Bangladesh, and, to a lesser extent, India, some of whom were subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor.
An unknown number of the 110,000 foreign workers working in the Maldives - primarily in the construction and service sectors - faced fraudulent recruitment practices, confiscation of identity and travel documents, withholding or non-payment of wages, or debt bondage.
[1] A small number of women from Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, China, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, and former Soviet Union countries were recruited for forced prostitution in Malé, the capital.
In addition, employment tribunal members and employees expressed concerns about their ability to resolve cases involving foreign workers because all their proceedings were conducted in the local language.
Due to a lack of comprehensive victim identification procedures, the Maldives may not have ensured that expatriates subjected to forced labor and prostitution were not inappropriately incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficking.
The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives, a constitutionally-established independent body, published a report in August 2009 that contained strong trafficking-related recommendations including prosecutions for forced labor offenders and regulations of recruitment agencies.
In February 2010, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Department of Immigration and Emigration prominently posted on its website a readout of bilateral discussions on trafficking.