Friday July 8th 2011 Government to Introduce New Measures to...

Friday July 8th 2011 Government to Introduce New Measures to Consolidate Expatriate Record KeepingThe Cabinet has today finalized a range of measures to consolidate and efficiently organize records on expatriate workers in the Maldives.

These measures include building a new expatriate information system, and developing new infrastructure for the information system to be used in the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth and Sports and the Department of Immigration and Emigration.

In developing the infrastructure, the Cabinet assigned the National Centre for Information Technology (NCIT) to oversee the agreement between the Department of Immigration and Emigration and Nexbis of Malaysia to install a new border control system in the Maldives.

The Cabinet also mandated the regulation of information system used in different institutions for expatriate record keeping to NCIT.

Measures decided to strengthen expatriate record keeping include selecting a joint team between the President?s Office and NCIT to coordinate security of the expatriate information systems used in different institutions.

These measures also include creating a data map to standardize expatriate records management between relevant government agencies.

In addition, the Cabinet today decided to craft a single expatriate record keeping framework for government agencies and introduce special measures to validate the authenticity of records in the system.

In today?s meeting, the Cabinet approved the registration of South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) in the Maldives.

SAIEVAC is a joint initiative between the governments of SAARC member countries, relevant UN agencies, and other international agencies with a vision that all children, girls and boys, throughout South Asia enjoy their right to an environment free from all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation, neglect and discrimination.

Speaking on the matter registering SAIEVAC in the Maldives, Cabinet members noted the absence of a regional body to protect child rights in the South Asia region, and promote the implementation of SAARC conventions and protocols on child protection.

They underlined that registering such a body in the Maldives, while a Maldivian serves as the Secretary-General of SAARC, would demonstrate the Maldivian government?s commitment to protect children and child rights.

Source: President?s Office ? Press Release Ref. No. 2011-447