While it has been a month since the bill to amend the Immigration Act to ban bearers of Israeli passports from entering the Maldives has been parked by the Security Services Committee (241 Committee), the committee has held four meetings since without the bill being up for discussion in any of the meetings.
The bill protesting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians introduced by the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Member of Parliament (MP) Meekail Ahmed Naseem and accepted for consideration by a unanimous floor vote of 88 members present, was referred to the 241 committee on June 10.
Leader of the administration-aligned People’s National Congress (PNC) Parliamentary Group and MP for Inguraidhoo, Ibrahim Falah proposed that the bill be referred to the 241 Committee for further consideration, with his motion seconded by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim.
Naseem proposed the bill after the previous 19th sessions of parliament passed a resolution calling on the current administration to ban Israeli tourists from entering the country in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The parliament passed a resolution on 1 April, calling for a ban on Israeli tourists and imports of Israeli products.
After the bill was introduced, the Cabinet approved amendments to the law to ban those with Israeli passports from entering the country. While the administration is expected to make changes to the bill at the committee stage, after remarks from Attorney General Ahmed Usham highlighting that some aspects of the bill were impractical, it is expected to be put to a floor vote once out of the Committee stage.