Majority of them are unskilled workers, who find the wage of US 100 attractive enough to work in the Maldives.

The Bangladeshi High Commissioner to Maldives was so alarmed by the developments that he cautioned that he might have to pull out Bangladeshi workers from the Maldives.

While there are several foreign professional workers such as doctors, accountants and teachers, the increase in xenophobia is mainly directed towards unskilled workers.

Malé, which is a small island of about two square kilometers, has a population of over 30,000 migrant workers. Most of them come from the neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh.

The Maldivian government was able to prevent Bangladeshi migrant workers' community in the capital Malé from holding a demonstration on Friday, by using the threat of deportation.

In August organized gangs in Malé repeatedly attacked some Bangladeshi workers in their living quarters while in the northern island of Kulhudhuffushi a male worker was castrated and brutally murdered.