Hulhumale’ raid: 13 places searched, three detained

Maldives Immigration has searched 13 business establishments as part of a raid operation targeted towards businesses based at Hiyaa flats in Hulhumale’ Phase II and subsequently detained three illegal expatriates.

Immigration, via a post on X on Sunday, they searched eight shops, four cafes and restaurants and a salon as part of the raid operation carried out on Saturday, adding three illegal expatriates working at two of these establishments have been detained.

According to Home Minister Ali Ihusan, the current administration has targeted to resolve the longstanding issue of illegal migration in the Maldives within the first three years.

To reach this goal, Immigration is undertaking efforts to identify illegal expatriates and regularize or deport them.

Prior to this, Immigration has said it was targeting to depot 5,000 illegal expatriates this year – a goal which the authority said they had reached last month.

Meanwhile, Home Ministry is also conducting an operation under the name ‘Kurangi’ through which the biometric data of migrants in the Maldives are being collected to formulate a registry.