Umar: Thinking about merging Customs and Immigration

Home Minister Umar Naseer has said that the government is thinking about combining Customs and Immigration.

Speaking at the flag raising ceremony celebrating 125 years of service of the Maldives Customs, Minister Umar Naseer said that the government is thinking about combining Customs and Immigration as they are at advanced countries.

“The purpose of that is merging these two institutes would mean low cost to the government and since the two institutes do similar work, we believe fast developments can be achieved.” Minister Umar said.

At the moment, Customs is being run under the Home Ministry and Immigration is under the Economic Ministry.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Commissioner General of Customs, Abbas Adhil Riza said that as the 125 anniversary of Customs begins, they are prepared to change into a “Risk Based Management Framework” and this would speed up the services provided by the Customs.

“We are being prepared to develop our services to match the speed of international business expansions with goods being imported for 24 resorts being constructed in the Maldives.” Abbas said.

There was a special prayer at the ceremony led by Sheikh Azmath Jameel. Customs says that other than at their main building, there were flag raising ceremonies held across the country at the Customs offices.