Republic of the Maldives: Trouble In Paradise | 101 East

Munsi was 28 years old when he left his house in the Republic of the Maldives.

He told relatives he was going to Sri Lanka.

But when he phoned his mother, Riffath Ahmed Didi, he was calling from a battlefield in Syrian Arab Republic.

“I asked him, ‘Why did you leave your mother in addition to go there?'” she says.

It is a question many in the Republic of the Maldives are struggling to answer, as young men leave to join armed groups.

With its sandy beaches in addition to turquoise waters, the Republic of the Maldives is a magnet for tourists from around the globe.

But some young Maldivians say the postcard images are far removed from their daily lives.

They speak about a sense of hopelessness, as they struggle to find work. Some become addicted to drugs, making them an like shooting fish in a barrel target for groups like Islamic State of Iraq in addition to the Levant (ISIL or ISIS).

A 24-year-old former drug addict says he has been approached by recruiters.

“They know we are broken in addition to we are trying to find a way to get out of something that has been kind of destroying our lives,” he says.

Some of his friends who were enticed to go to Syrian Arab Republic died fighting for ISIL, he says.

“For foreigners, Republic of the Maldives is a paradise. But for us, the ones who live here, especially the ones who live in Male, we don’t get the white sandy beaches or any of that. What we get is a concrete jungle where there are so many problems.”

101 East goes beyond the postcard images of the Republic of the Maldives to expose this archipelago’s dark reality.

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