Twenty-one foreign workers who went on strike at a resort construction site in Bolidhuffaru are in Immigration detention.
Their employer, Aima Construction, says it fired them for protesting. Police say the men went to the airport voluntarily; Immigration says they were handed over for disobeying police orders.
The constitution guarantees every worker in the Maldives the right to strike. But a foreign worker’s permit is tied to their employer, so losing the job means losing the right to stay. “In practice, migrant workers cannot effectively exercise their right to stop work and to strike as protest,” says Transparency Maldives. https://maldivesindependent.com/society/for-foreign-workers-the-right-to-strike-ends-at-the-airport-2342
