The state has recovered MVR 1.2 billion out of MVR 1.7 billion in outstanding fees and penalties for permits issued to expatriate workers, according to a senior official from the Homeland Security Ministry.
In an interview to Public Service Media (PSM) on Tuesday night, Abdul Majeed Ibrahim, a state minister at the Homeland Security Ministry, said that authorities have collected the biometrics of over 160,000 expatriates under ‘Operation Kurangi’, an initiative that was launched in May 2024 to collect the biometric data of all migrant workers in the Maldives.
Employers were given until June 30 to update the biometrics of foreign workers under their employment.
Abdul Majeed said that employers who failed to meet the deadline have been penalized with the suspension of services provided through the Xpat system, the expatriate management system managed by the Homeland Security Ministry.
Homeland Security Minister Ali Ihusan had previously said that outstanding fees and penalties for work visas, work permits and quotas amounted to a staggering MVR 1.7 billion when the government rolled out enforcement measures in June 2024.
On Tuesday, Abdul Majeed said the state has now recovered MVR 1.2 billion.
“There was MVR 1.7 billion in outstanding fees when we began this initiative. But we have recovered MVR 1.2 billion, as of today,” he said.
Maldives Immigration detains irregular expatriates in a raid in Male' City on August 19, 2024. (Photo/Maldives Immigration)
The Homeland Security Ministry has also been suspending Xpat services and imposing additional penalties for employers who have failed to settle the outstanding fees.
According to Zuban Ibrahim, an employment service executive at the Homeland Security Ministry, 13,755 out of 68,251 employers registered to recruit expatriates have been suspended over the issue.
The Homeland Security Ministry has been offering flexible payment options that allow for employers to clear their outstanding fees in installments.
Zuban said the ministry is considering extending the payment schedule by a year.
The crackdown on irregular migration – launched in 2023 – has seen over 6,000 expatriates deported from the Maldives. Ihusan had previously said that the goal is not to arrest and deport expatriates, but to give them a chance to get regularized.
Undocumented expatriate workers at the Galolhu National Stadium for appointments for Economic Ministry's regularization program on October 19, 2019. (File Photo/Sun/Ahmed Awshan Ilyas)
He said that all undocumented expatriates would be regularized once the authorities finish collecting data on all expatriate workers and enter it into a system.
On Tuesday, Abdul Majeed said the ministry will launch a regularization program “in the near future.”
“A worker who lacks proper documents or is on the run or in any other situation… They will get the chance to enter into the system in the future,” he said.
Abdul Majeed said that data collected under ‘Operation Kurangi’ shows there are many expatriate workers who are left stranded outside the system because of negligence on the part of employers.