39 detained in raid on expat-run fishing boats

39 irregular expatriates have been detained in a raid on fishing boats docked at the fish market area of Male’ City.

In a post on X, Mohamed Shamaan Waheed said the raid was conducted by the special taskforce on Monday following public concern over a number of fishing boats in the area that are controlled by expatriates.

He said that 39 expatriates were detained in the raid.

Last week, Homeland Security Minister Ali Ihusan said that some 5,000 irregular expatriates have been deported from the Maldives in the one-year since the People’s National Congress (PNC) administration took office.

Ihusan said that the ‘Operation Kurangi’ – a program to collect the biometric data of all expatriates in the Maldives - has been expanded to 138 islands.

The biometric data of over 10,000 expatriates have been collected so far, he said.

He expects to finish collecting the biometric data of all expatriates by April next year.