Immigration looks into complaints of expat control at local market

The Maldives Immigration has inspected the Male’ local market area after receiving complaints that the area was under the control of foreign vendors.

Immigration confirmed it conducted the inspection after receiving a complaint to its ‘Immigration Watch’ whistleblower platform. The authority’s taskforce was dispatched to the area, which inspected foreign vendors in the area from Tuesday early morning until noon.

The authority inspected market stalls and docked vessels in the area.

“A total of 148 migrants were inspected, and apprehended 22 male expatriates and one female expatriate for residing illegally,” Immigration said.

Immigration had previously arrested several irregular migrants from the market area, while presence of foreign vendors in local market was reported earlier as well.

The current government aims to solve illegal migration within three years according to the Minister of Homeland Security Ali Ihusan, and noted the primary objective of Immigration’s operations is not deportation of migrants but offer them the chance to reside for employment legitimately.