45 individuals have been intercepted at the air border, so far this year.

This was revealed by the Maldives Immigration department on Wednesday.

In a post on social media platform ‘X’, the immigration department shed light on efforts to strengthen security at Maldives borders and provided details of the most recent interception cases at the air border.

Statistics are for the three quarters of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2023.

According to figures, the highest number of people attempting to enter the Maldives through deception were stopped in the third quarter of the year.

According to the statistics released by Immigration, a total of 45 people attempting to enter the Maldives by air were stopped by the end of September this year.

This includes eight people in the first quarter, 17 people in the second quarter, and 20 people in the third quarter.

As such, in the first quarter of 2024, between January to March, eight interceptions were recorded including one case of a counterfeit ID, six cases of counterfeit passports and one case involving an imposter.

In the second quarter of 2024, between April and June, 17 interceptions were recorded including one case of a forged passport and the remaining 16 cases involved counterfeit passports.

Further, the third quarter of 2024, between July and September saw 20 interceptions in total, including five cases of counterfeit passports, one counterfeit ID case, three counterfeit bio page case, one fantasy passport case, four cases involving imposters, two cases involving counterfeit visas and four cases involving counterfeit stamps.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, between 17 November 2023 and December 2023, the immigration department reported five interceptions in total including one involving a counterfeit resident card and four involving counterfeit passports.

According to statistics, the number of individuals intercepted for attempting to enter the Maldives on forged documents illegally since the incumbent administration took over, sits at 50.

Immigration continues to conduct extensive efforts to identify and stop individuals attempting to enter the Maldives using forged documents.