President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has announced that a nationwide crackdown will commence Sunday to identify and immediately deport expatriates involved in unlicensed business activities.
The mass operation was announced by President Muizzu during a rally held in F. Nilandhoo on Saturday night.
Addressing the rally, President Muizzu said the operation will focus on identifying and shutting down unlicensed businesses operated by expatriates, especially in larger islands, ensuring that all economic activities are conducted in accordance with the law, and deporting undocumented expatriates.
President Muizzu said that irregular migration is a longstanding issue that hasn’t been properly addressed until now.
The Maldives launched a crackdown on irregular migration in 2023. And in May 2024, the authorities launched ‘Operation Kurangi’, an initiative to collect the biometric data of all expatriates working in the Maldives.
President Muizzu said that ‘Operation Kurangi’ has helped collect data on 178,982 expatriates working in the Maldives, a large number of whom are undocumented.
He added that authorities have also deported over 8,000 undocumented expatriates as part of the crackdown.
Speaking further, President Muizzu named drug abuse and gang-related crimes as two other pressing and longstanding challenges facing the country.
He said that his administration is determined to tackle the two issues with transparency and without judicial interference.
He noted the recent enactment of new anti-gang laws, and said the administration is also working on drafting amendments to the Drug Act.
Matters concerning public safety, law, and order will be addressed decisively, and the government remains steadfast in upholding the rule of law in all its undertakings, he said.
The announcement of a mass crackdown on expatriates involved in unlicensed business activities comes nearly three weeks after the Homeland Security Ministry announced plans to launch a mass regularization program for undocumented expatriates.
The crackdown on irregular migration – launched in 2023 – has seen over 8,000 expatriates deported from the Maldives. Homeland Security Minister Ali Ihusan has previously said that the goal is not to arrest and deport expatriates, but to give them a chance to get regularized.
Neither the Homeland Security Ministry nor Maldives Immigration has released any details regarding the new operation on unlicensed business activities.