Immigration positions to be filled by Customs employees and Military Force

The shortage of employees in the Department of Immigration is to be solved by Police, Military Force and employees of Maldives Customs Service filling these roles. No time limit is given for employees of these three institutions to fill these positions.

The government’s gazette, which is published twice a week, stated that according to The Cabinet, positions in The Department of Immigration are to be temporarily filled by the Police, Military Force and Customs employees. However, the Police and Military Force will only be required if Customs employees are not enough.

The Gazette says that thirty Customs employees will be chosen to fill Immigration posts.

The Controller Abdulla Shahid said today that the lack of permanent employees at Immigration is due to financial difficulties, and that they stopped recruiting new people about five years ago.

“Our workload has increased by 30 to 40 percent in some departments, and by 100 percent in other departments. Due to budget limitations, The Finance Minister does not allow recruitment of new employees. It has now been about five years since we recruited new people. Because it is the high season right now, we need a lot more employees,” Shahid said.

He also said that no time limit has been decided for the employees who are being transferred from other institutions, and also that they will be working “behind the scenes”.

“It has not been decided for how long they will work at Immigration. They will be required to do so until this problem of shortage is solved,” the Controller said.

An announcement was made last month, regarding recruitment of employees to Immigration.