Five foreigners have been taken into custody from coffee shops by Maldives Immigration during an operation to find foreigners residing illegally in the Maldives.

Immigration took to social media platform ‘X’, revealing that the expatriates were taken into custody during a raid operation conducted by the Task Force specifically targeting coffee shops in the capital Malé City on Saturday.

The Immigration post stated that during Saturday's raid operation, six establishments operating as coffee shops were inspected.

Five people were arrested from the coffee shops.

Immigration raids are currently targeting areas with a significant foreign presence.

While the Task Force has conducted many operations targeting illegal foreigners, Immigration says operations in the Greater Malé Region (GMR) have been successful so far.

According to the latest statistics released by Immigration, more than 1,300 places have been inspected in the operations conducted so far, and a total of 5,012 foreigners have been deported.

Among the foreigners deported from the Maldives are those who were staying without valid visas and foreigners who were committing multiple crimes, including a large number of foreigners involved in drug-related issues, theft, and prostitution.

Immigration says that under Operation Kurangi, which is being carried out to collect information on foreigners to find a permanent solution to the issue of illegal foreigners in the Maldives, biometric data of more than 18,000 foreigners have been collected so far.