The Norway-based Forum 18 News reported that the Maldivian economy, especially the “health sector and school system,” which depends heavily on a huge foreign workforce, offers these workers “almost no religious freedom” though they make up a quarter of the population. Out of the 80,000 migrant workers, about half of them were from Bangladesh with most of the others were from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Indonesia. The report notes that while most of the migrant workers from Bangladesh and Indonesia were Muslim, most workers from other South Asian countries were non-Muslim (Buddhist, Christian, Hindus), who are treated as an underclass by many Maldivians1.

In other developments, reports noted that the Maldives National Oil Company (MNOC) was planning to build a $150 million crude terminal that can store up to 6 million cubic feet of oil on one of its many islands2.

• 1. “Religious Freedom of Huge Migrant Workers Curbed in Maldives,” Christian Post, June 24, 2009, at http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090624/religious-freedom-of-huge-...
• 2. “Maldives planning US150mn bunker, crude terminal,” Lanka Business, June 26, 2009, at http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?nid=1634077440