840 reports in relation to expatriates, prevalently illegal businesses

Immigration Watch, the online portal launched by Immigration for submittal of reports against expatriates living and working illegally in the country, has received 840 reports within three months.

The Immigration Watch portal was launched on July 17.

Statistics released by Maldives Immigration today shows that the highest number of reports are concerning expatriates engaged in various businesses illegally.

Immigration has shut down many illegal businesses such as grocery shops, guesthouse and cafe's, taking into detention staff working at such places.

Some complaints submitted to Immigration Watch

- 221 cases of illegal businesses

- 206 cases of work visa violation

- 50 cases of prostitution

- 7 cases of black market dollar exchange

- 9 cases of drug trafficking

- 7 cases of human trafficking

Immigration said that investigation has been completed on 596 cases, while 174 are invalid or unverifiable. 70 other cases are in the process of verification.

The government sees tackling the issue of expatriates living and working illegally in the country as a matter of high priority. Over the past ten months, over 4000 expatriates have been deported for various reasons, and Immigration continues to run special operations to identify such individuals.