Since taking charge on November 17, 2023 and until last Sunday, the current government has deported more than 3,000 expatriates.
According to Maldives Immigration, authorities have deported a total of 3,322 expatriates for offenses ranging from undocumented stay to operating unregistered businesses. Authorities have raided 257 different establishments as part of the ongoing crackdown to identify illegal immigrants and expatriates running businesses illegally.
Immigration, especially, have heightened its measures against foreigners that operate businesses unlawfully.
Besides this, the Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology earlier launched ‘Operation Kurangi’; which is a nationwide initiative to identify and filter our undocumented or illegal immigrants and provide them the change to become documented.
More recently, local authorities had apprehended and taken legal action against expatriates processing packaged or other forms of food items in severely unhygienic conditions. One of these incidents also involved the processing of cat meat by a Bangladeshi national.
Local authorities are investigating these cases while necessary action have been taken against culpable migrants in some of them.