Four foreigners attempting to illegally enter Maldives stopped

Maldives Immigration has stopped four foreigners who arrived in the Maldives with forged stamps on their passports.

Immigration said four foreigners were stopped at Velana International Airport last Wednesday after it was discovered that they were using passports with forged stamps.

Their photos and ages have been shared on social media by Immigration. The four, all men, are aged 22, 25, 28 and 31. However, their nationalities were not disclosed.

Illegal migration remains a longstanding issue in the Maldives.

Immigration, in collaboration with Maldives Police Service, have recently been conducting a series of raids to catch illegal migrants.

Last week, Immigration said over 1,800 expatriates detained in the current raids have been deported.

Immigration’s Controller General Mohamed Shamman has previously stated these raids will continue without interruption.

At a session of the ‘Ahaa’ public forum back in April, Home Minister Ali Ihusan said the issue of illegal migration would be resolved in three years.

Home Ministry’s ‘Operation Kurangi’, aimed at combating illegal migration, has seen the collection of the biometrics of over 1,500 expatriates, since it was launched on May 2.

Minister Ihusan has said that once the data on all expatriates are collected and entered into a system, the government will then regularize all undocumented migrants.

Ihusan warned that those who fail to make use of the opportunity will be deported.

However, he stressed that the goal is not to arrest and deport expatriates, but to give them a chance to get regularized.