Maldives Immigration has apprehended 25 expatriates working in the Maldives without a work visa.

The expatriates were apprehended during an operation by the Maldives Immigration where a number of café, restaurants, and shops in Male’ were inspected on Tuesday.

During the operation, 25 foreign nationals were found to be working in the Maldives without a work visa while six establishments were given warnings for lacking adequate documentation.

In the current administration's effort to tackle the issue of illegal migrants in the Maldives, the Ministry of Economic Development has been conducting a regularisation program.

As such, the ‘National Task-force on Issues Related to Migrant Workers’ was formed, which banned the recruitment of unskilled Bangladeshi workers for one year.

An estimate of 105,000 migrant workers currently work in the Maldives. This amount includes an overwhelming number of migrants without documentation such as passports and work visas.

Moreover, migrants without passports face many challenges in obtaining new documentation and are likely subjected to human trafficking.