The Maldives Immigration has held discussions with relevant authorities to address the issue of illegal expatriates in Addu City.
The Controller General of Immigration Mohamed Shamaan Waheed accompanied by the Deputy Controller General of Immigration Ahmed Ashfan met with the Addu City Council members to hold the relevant discussions. As such, discussions were held on the issue of illegal immigrants in the city and exploring ways to collaborate on future operations.
In addition to the city council, the Controller General and senior officials of Immigration held discussions with the Addu City Commander SP Mohamed Masood and senior officials of Maldives Police Service stationed at Addu City. The meeting focused on planning targeted operations to combat the issue of illegal expatriates in the region.
The Maldives Immigration is working tirelessly to solve the issue of illegal immigrants in the country. As such, the authority in collaboration with the Maldives Police Service has been conducting raids on illegally operated businesses by the expatriates. As part of these operations the Immigration has detained and deported hundreds of foreigners and shut down such businesses.
Additionally, the authority has also launched a special online portal named Immigration Watch to report illegal immigrants. The platform allows Maldivians the opportunity to work with the authority to solve the issue of illegal immigrants. Those with relevant information can use the platform 24 hours a day and pictures and other relevant documentation can be submitted to the portal. The portal can be accessed via imuga.immigration.gov.mv.
Foreign workers can only be brought into the country if there are available vacancies, and they are eligible for the work through relevant agencies, according to the Maldivian Constitution. However, numerous instances of immigrants bypassing these regulations have been reported. Efforts are underway to centralise information on all foreigners in the Maldives into a unified database, aiming to resolve related issues within a three-year timeframe.