46 irregular expats detained in raid on Huraa

Maldives Immigration detained 46 irregular expatriate workers on Wednesday, in a mass raid in K. Huraa.

According to Immigration, it conducted the special raid operation in collaboration with the police from 06:00 am to 05:00 pm on Wednesday.

“46 migrants who were living irregularly in Huraa were taken into custody of Immigration in this operation,” said the agency.

Immigration did not disclose the nationalities of those detained in the raid.

The crackdown on irregular migration – launched in 2023 – has seen over 5,000 expatriates deported from the Maldives.

Immigration expanded its raid operations to the atolls in October 2024 following reports that many irregular expatriates were leaving Male’ to islands to avoid detainment during the ongoing raids targeting the capital.

The Maldives also been running ‘Operation Kurangi’ – a program to collect the biometric data of all expatriates in the country.

The biometric data of over 25,000 expatriates have been collected so far.