Immigration deports 'Riz' owner for illegally running salon

The owner of 'Salon by Riz', Rajani Shrestha has been deported for illegally running salon services in the Maldives.

Shrestha, who goes by Aishath Rizqin after accepting Islam in 2020, has been operating salon services in the Maldives at an expansive scale.

Maldives Immigration on Saturday said they conducted special inspections earlier on August 11th following a report received to the authority's "Immigration Watch" online portal about the Shrestha's salon.

Following the inspection, authorities discovered Shrestha was running the salon outside the scope of her visa. Immigration also added that all four expatriate employees at the salon lacked proper visa documents.

All the individuals were taken under Immigration custody and deported without return to Maldives earlier on August 13th.

Earlier in 2024, Shrestha had opened a second outlet of her salon brand.

Shrestha first arrived in the Maldives in 2016, and later accepted Islam. The now deported spa owner is also known for her humanitarian efforts towards orphans, and is also a locally well known social media influencer.

This is the most recently announced deportation of an illegal business owner in the ongoing series of Immigration's crackdown against illegal expatriates and foreigners running businesses illegally.

The authority earlier launched the online portal to report such cases, which is available 24 hours.