12 expats detained in Immigration raid on Hulhumale’ garage

A dozen expatriate workers were detained by Maldives Immigration earlier this week, in a raid on a garage in Hulhumale’.

The raid on the garage, located in Hulhumale’ Phase I, was conducted on Monday by the special task force set up between Immigration and police to tackle irregular migration.

In a post on X on Thursday, Immigration said that they questioned and inspected 20 expatriates during the raid, and detained 12 who were found in violation of immigration regulations.

“During the operation, 20 expats were inspected, resulting in the detention of 12 expats for violating immigration regulations,” said Immigration.

The crackdown on irregular migration – launched in 2023 – has seen over 12,000 expatriates deported from the Maldives.

The authorities also launched ‘Operation Kurangi’ in May 2024, an initiative to collect the biometric data of all expatriates working in the Maldives.

Homeland Security Minister Ali Ihusan said in April that authorities were able to bring down the population of undocumented migrants from 72 percent to 38 percent over the last two years under the operation.

The third phase of ‘Operation Kurangi’ was rolled out in May, which focuses on the immediate identification, arrest, and deportation of undocumented expatriates and those with outstanding visa fees.