The Maldives Immigration, in collaboration with the Maldives Police Service (MPS) have detained 16 immigrants working illegally in the Maldives. They were detained during a raid of four different places.
Immigration, in collaboration with the Maldives Police Service launched the special operation to track down illegal immigrants on June 30. The authority detained 83 immigrants who were working in the Maldives illegally, during the first day of the operation. The operation is being conducted in markets, various business establishments and food outlets in the city. More than 130 foreigners have been taken into immigration custody so far.
Furthermore, Controller General Sham'aan has stated that identifying expatriates involved in businesses activities which are not permitted and taking legal action against them are their current priority. He emphasised the Immigration's efforts to resolve the issue, affirming that the current operations will not be halted.
Moreover, Sham’aan has earlier issued a warning, stating that legal action will be pursued against individuals who employ illegal expatriates as well. He emphasised that it is unlawful to engage in financial transactions with foreigners or to hire unauthorised foreign workers, according to the Maldives Immigration Act. He also noted that violators will face penalties as stipulated by law.
Additionally, Immigration launched a special online platform, Immigration Watch to report illegal immigrants, as part of its ongoing efforts to curb the issue of illegal immigrants in the country. The authority, along with MPS has conducted more than 40 raid operations, since November 17 last year, deporting more than 2,000 expatriates and detaining more than 150 expatriates. Immigration notes that the deportation process of the detained expatriates is underway.
The government is making strategic efforts to tackle this issue. As such, the government aims to expand this operation across all islands nationwide within the next year and collect information about immigrants to be easily accessed in a single database. The government also targets to solve the issue of illegal immigrants completely within three years.