22 illegal expats detained in weekend raids in Maldives’ capital

Maldives Immigration has detained 22 expatriates found to be working in the country illegally in raids in Male’ City over the weekend.

Immigration and police have been conducting a special operation to curb illegal immigration in the Maldives.

In a post on X, Immigration said it conducted two raids in Male’ City on Saturday, which led to the detention of 22 expatriates.

The first raid was carried out on Saturday morning at the Heenaamaage Parking Zone in the Galolhu district of Male’ City in response to a report lodged via the ‘Immigration Watch’ portal.

Officers questioned and searched expatriates there, and detained 14 who lacked a work permit.

The second raid was carried out in response to a report lodged with the Male’ City Council regarding an accommodation block in the Maafannu district.

Officers detained eight expatriates there who were found to be living in Maldives illegally.

Illegal immigration is a longstanding issue facing the Maldives.

At a session of the ‘Ahaa’ public forum back in April, Home Minister Ali Ihusan said the government aims to resolve the issue of illegal migration in three years.

In May, the Home Ministry launched ‘Operation Kurangi’ – designed to collect the biometric data of all expatriate workers – in what Ihusan said was phase one of the initiative, which will wrap up in one year.

He said that once the data on all expatriates are collected and entered into a system, the government will then regularize all undocumented expatriates.

Ihusan warned that those who fail to make use of the opportunity will be deported.

However, he stressed that the goal is not to arrest and deport expatriates, but to give them a chance to get regularized.

Meanwhile, Immigration and the police have been conducting raids in a special joint operation targeting businesses run by illegal expatriates.

Over 2,000 expatriates have been deported as part of the crackdown.