Attorney General (AG) Ahmed Usham said on Thursday that a blanket ban on Israeli passports warrants additional consideration.
Replying to a question during a press conference held at the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), the AG said that while the administration’s stance on the matter has not changed, there were concerns about a blanket ban on Israeli passports.
“The biggest concern of some is that there are many Palestinians holding Israeli passports, millions of them, so what happens when we issue a blanket ban? These are things that need to be thought through,” the AG said, explaining that a considered solution would be found.
There is no bill on the administration’s legislative agenda that would seek to ban Israeli passports. However, according to Usham, such a bill was not included because another on the same subject had already been introduced in parliament. The bill, proposed earlier by opposition Member of Parliament Meekail Ahmed Nasym to amend The Maldives Immigration Act (1/2007), is already under parliamentary consideration; however, Usham highlighted that the bill, in its current form, might not be practical.
The bill as currently proposed adds a provision to Article 8 of The Maldives Immigration Act which governs ‘Persons who do not have a permit of entry’, seeking to bar any Israeli passport holder, or other foreign passport holder who also has an Israeli passport, from entering the Maldives.
“According to the rules of the Parliament, if a bill has been introduced on the same issue, one cannot be concurrently introduced for a second time… We believed that it would be best to accept the existing bill and amend it at the committee stage. Therefore, the administration will not introduce another bill,” Usham said.
The AG did not specify the exact amendments that would be proposed.