Maldives authorities deport over 2,000 illegal immigrants

Controller General of Immigration Mohamed Shamman Waheed on Sunday has said local authorities have deported a total of 2,013 illegal immigrants back to their home countries.

At the joint press conference by Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology, Maldives Police Service and Immigration, Shamman said this total is the number of illegal expats deported from November 17 to July 11.

Shamman further highlighted these included expatriates involved in serious issues including criminal activities and running businesses illegally.

“We have expanded our operations since last week. We are focusing these operations on illegal immigrants, and expatriates who own and run businesses illegally without a local party’s involvement,” Shamman said.

Immigration has detained a total of 112 illegal expatriates as of Saturday in its ongoing crackdown to identify and take necessary action against illegal immigrants.

The authority added it is now making arrangements to deport the detained foreigners back to their home countries without granting them any further opportunities to remain in the Maldives.

While the expat population in the Maldives is significantly high with their subsequent involvement in several industries, the issue of illegal immigrants and businesses illegally owned by expatriates is an alarming concern.

Ministry of Homeland Security earlier launched ‘Operation Kurangi’, a nationwide effort to collect the biometric data of immigrants to record their information in a registry, thereby identifying the total immigrant population in the country.