The Chinese tourist who has been living on the premises of the Maafannu Police Station has now been taken under the care of the Maldives Immigration Services.
Immigration said on Tuesday that they were unable to send the tourist back to China due to her refusal to leave.
The tourist was cautioned first at the airport on October 19 for causing public disturbance. After this, she first lived in the airport and then after police advising against it and referring her to Immigration, moved to live in the reception area of the Maafannu Police Station.
Last Thursday, Police stated that despite multiple attempts at cautioning her, the tourist continued to live on their premises.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Immigration clarified that the tourist was initially booked to fly out on October 19. They said that the woman refused to board the plane after having checked in and completed immigration clearance. She was then offloaded from the flight and began sleeping in the waiting area of the airport. When her actions caused disturbances to other people frequenting the airport, tourist police intervened and handed her case over to immigration.
Immigration said that they had directed the tourist to fly out of the country at the earliest as they did not currently have the facilities to house females in the Immigration Detention Centre. They stated that they received no cooperation from the tourist on this directive.
Immigration has said that it has now reached out to the Foreign Ministry to contact the tourist's family with the aid of the China Embassy in Maldives and facilitate her travel out of the country.
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