Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology has revealed that biometric data of over 4,000 immigrants have been collected up to date, under Operation Kurangi.
Operation Kurangi is a nationwide initiative to gather biometric data to identify the illegal immigrants in the Maldives and regularise them. The first phase was conducted in Himmafushi and Maafushi in Kaafu Atoll, and the second phase has now been expanded across the country.
In its latest update on the operation, the homeland security ministry reported that it has commenced operations in 45 inhabited islands. Data collection teams have successfully gathered information from all immigrants on eight of these islands, resulting in a total of 4,272 immigrants from the 45 islands having their biometric data recorded.
The nationwide operation was launched to address the issue of illegal immigrants and will help determine whether foreign workers in the Maldives are employed in compliance with existing laws and regulations. The ministry has provided fingerprint machines to the councils and developed a specialised application to facilitate the identification and regularisation of foreigners. Additionally, plans are underway to create a registry for the collected immigrant data.