Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology has announced its decision to assist undocumented migrant workers who wish to regularize and secure employment.
The Ministry, via an announcement, said they have decided to launch a ‘mass legalization program’ to regularize undocumented migrants working in the Maldives, including those with expired work permits or without identification documents.
As such, the Ministry has instructed migrants who have registered their biometrics under ‘Operation Kurangi’ and are currently unemployed, to complete the provided form and submit it to the Ministry if they wish to gain employment.
The Ministry said it will assist migrants included in the registry formulated under the operation to find employment if they desire so.
The mass legalization program is part of Operation Kurangi, the Ministry added.
Operation Kurangi is conducted in three phases, with the Home Ministry preparing to commence work on the second phase of the operation in January.
In this regard, under the second phase, Home Ministry is preparing to conduct a mass legalization program between January and April to allow undocumented migrants whose biometrics have been collected to regularize. Such migrants will have this three-month window to seek regularization and obtain legal employment.  
Maldives has a large migrant population with the census conducted in 2022 reporting its 500,000 population comprises of 132,439 migrants. As such, 26 percent of Maldives’ population accounts for migrants.
A large percentage of the migrant population is undocumented. To address this issue, the current administration launched Operation Kurangi, alongside efforts to deport undocumented migrants within 48 hours of immigration detention.
Speaking at a press conference last week, Home Minister Ali Ihusan said the Ministry has collected biometric data from 202,000 migrants under the operation, and that 9,000 undocumented migrants have been deported.