Expat accused of killing cats, preparing food with cat meat

Maldives Immigration has issued a notice to appear for an expatriate man after allegations against him surfaced on social media, accusing him of killing cats in the Malé area, and using cat meat to prepare food products.

The man in question is a Bangladeshi national identified as Arfat Hossain, aged 32.

An official from Maldives Immigration told Mihaaru News that the individual has been found to be residing in the country illegally and that the summon was issued following a report that he may be killing cats in Malé and using cat meat to prepare food products.

The notice gives him a five day period to present himself to the agency.

Videos on social media show a local questioning Arfat at the parking zone in front of Marry Brown, near Boduthakurufaanu Magu. In the video, when questioned why he is in the parking lot with plastic bags, he said that he uses them to take cats home.

The individual who published the video also showed clips from outside Arfat's residence, and said neighbours have reported seeing body parts of cats in the vicinity.

"And they have heard cat cries. Entering here [the lane in which Arfat's house is located], you can see it has been made to prepare food. The ventilation pipe that goes up is fixed to the expatriate's house," the narrator of the video said.

This part of the video showed a point of view entering the narrow lane in which Arfat's residence is located, and a ventilation pipe attached to one of the houses.

The video also mentioned that Arfat previously made burgers and submarines with a logo written in English, which was shown in the video. However, the products no longer carry this logo.

"Burgers and submarines are items we get for our little children's school intervals. So it is unacceptable that we are being deceived into receiving these products. We are very concerned about this today," the video stated.

The current administration of Maldives has been cracking down on the issue of undocumented expatriate workers and various violations of immigration laws. As such, frequent raids have been carried out by Maldives Immigration and Maldives Police Service where expatriates found to be preparing food products in extremely unhygienic conditions have been apprehended.