Rasmalé has dominated the headlines for six weeks. Campaigners rally on Friday, the MDP has set a 15 November deadline for a referendum, and President Muizzu wants the Eagle Hills deal signed before 17 November. Our explainer covers what is being sold, to whom, and what we still don’t know.
It draws on our two-part series, the second with OCCRP, and on reporting since. That includes what the infrastructure minister told religious scholars behind closed doors, why estimates of the land’s worth run from US$2.9 billion to US$24 billion, and three different official counts of investor visas.
Our right to information requests found that the economic ministry has no record of any visa issued for a real estate investment and has never published the quarterly figures its own rules require. The tourism ministry won’t release its list of resort villa leases.
Read the full explainer: https://maldivesindependent.com/explainer/residency-for-sale-what-we-know-about-rasmal-ayla-and-the-pearl-visa-fa40
