Over 800 cases reported to Immigration Watch; 221 regarding illegal businesses

Maldives Immigration has received over 800 reports via ‘Immigration Watch’ – in the three months since it launched the online platform to report unlawful activities carried out by expatriate workers.

The platform was launched on July 17.

Immigration reported on Thursday that the agency received 840 reports via the platform, which allows for anonymous reports, between July 17 and October 15. The agency is either attending to or has completed 596 of these cases. It is in the process of verifying 70 of the reports, and have ruled the remaining 174 reports as unverifiable or irrelevant.

The most reported cases are regarding illegal business activities by expatriates. The agency received 221 reports regarding illegal businesses. This follows 206 reports regarding work visa violations.

The types of offenses reported:

• Expatriate illegal business: 221
• Work visa violations: 206
• Prostitution: 50
• Missing person information: 32
• Tourist visa violation: 10
• Employer sponsor breach: 9
• Drug trafficking: 9
• Black market foreign currency exchange: 7
• Humann trafficking: 7
• Border intelligence: 3
• Document fraud: 2
• Others: 40

Maldives Immigration has carried out multiple raids in response to reports lodged via Immigration Watch, many involving the preparation and packaging of food items for sale in dilapidated house.

A number of migrants were taken into custody in the operations.

Speaking at the launch of Immigration Watch, the Controller General of Immigration, Mohamed Shamaan Waheed said that the platform allows for greater community engagement in tackling the issue of illegal migration.

According to Maldives Immigration, the country has deported 4,054 expatriates between November 17, 2023 and September 17, 2024.