The Maldives offer no rights to religious freedom in their constitution, and the Maldivian government seems obstinate to keep their constitution this way. Because of the lack of religious freedom, more extremist fringe groups continually attempt to attack social activists by accusing them of not adhering to Islamic principles. Those who are activists are often targeted by these extremist groups. For example, many migrant workers in the Maldives are undocumented. Oftentimes, these people emigrate from the mainland of Southern Asia to work in commercial and tourism markets. However, these migrant workers face workplace discrimination by working in dangerous conditions and being underpaid. Since they are undocumented, if they choose to protest, they risk being deported from the Maldives. Those that are deported might never be paid those missing wages. The Maldivian government also deals with a lot of corruption in its police and politics, making this an even tougher systemic issue for the country to approach.
On the other hand, the government’s infrastructure is ill-prepared to deal with large scale disasters, like COVID-19, for example. The pandemic left many children without a mandated education program from the government. This choice undoubtedly sets back the education of a generation. This is concerning because with lower education rates, poverty rates rise.
