Maldives Customs Service officials have been instructed to check the luggage of officials from the Foreign Ministry who had been issued diplomatic passports, Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has said on Monday.
In an interview with Haveeru, the Foreign Minister said that the decision had been taken last Saturday in order to dismiss suspicions on the Ministry’s officials, to avoid scandal and to preserve their good reputation.
“We’ve opened missions in many countries,” he said. “As the number of missions increases so will the number of staff who holds diplomatic passports. There are many emissaries and diplomatic staff and many times we’ve gotten a bad name just because our staff had diplomatic passports. In reality, none of our staff would try to smuggle in anything illegal into the country; that is true. But because they had diplomatic passports they are automatically placed under suspicion.”
The Minister said that he didn’t believe that the Maldivian Customs and Immigration should give any special privileges to those who held diplomatic passports. He also said that the decision had been made after discussing the matter with other staff and foreign emissaries.
“They should get the special privileges when they go to other countries only,” said the Foreign Minister. “I believe that whether you owned a red-passport or a green one you should have your luggage checked. Even my own luggage should be checked.”
In addition to senior officials of the Foreign Ministry and Diplomatic Missions, the President of the Maldives, the First Lady, their children, grandchildren and their in-laws, Ministers and their wives, Ministers of State, senior officials who have served the Government for a long time, emissaries and their wives, all own the red-coloured diplomatic passports. Senior officials of Government offices, Members of the People’s Majlis and Special Majlis, own the green-coloured Official Passport.
Source: haveeru.com.mv
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