Maldives Immigration has detained 11 illegal immigrants from Hulhumale’. The immigrants were arrested during an inspection following a report received via the newly inaugurated Immigration Watch portal.
Immigration disclosed that it received a tip-off that expatriates were illegally operating a food delivery outlet on top of a garage in Hulhumale’. Immigration noted that the foreigners were trying to demolish and clean the premises when the Immigration officers went to inspect the area. The arrested include eight foreigners from the illegally operated food delivery outlet and three from the garage downstairs. Immigration notes that the posts about this food delivery outlet have been circulating on social media for some time now.
Maldives Immigration launched the special online platform, Immigration Watch to report illegal immigrants, as part of its ongoing efforts to curb the issue of illegal immigrants in the country, on July 17. The platform allows anonymous reports of illegal immigrants and attempts of illegal entering. The portal can be accessed via imuga.immigration.gov.mv.
Immigration is collaborating with Maldives Police Service (MPS) to hunt down illegally operated businesses by foreigners. The authority, along with MPS has conducted 42 raid operations, since November 17 last year, deporting more than 2,069 expatriates and detaining more than 100 expatriates. Immigration notes that the deportation process of the detained expatriates is underway.