The management and officers of Maldives Immigration held ‘Kashavaru-2019’, an event to celebrate the achievements of 2019. The event was held on Sunday in the Immigration Head Office at Velaanaage.

Controller General Mohamed Ahmed Hussain introduced an animated video in the event, which presents the achievements of Immigration in 2019. As the video displays, Immigration’s achievements were on several areas. Hence, they include the achievements in decentralizing services, providing convenient services to customers, building public trust, minimizing the undocumented expatriates, strengthening border security and building human resources.

The achievements of Maldives Immigration in 2019 include the following;

1. Introduction of passport application service via email with online payment procedure.

2. Publishing Immigration statistics to ensure transparency.

3. Processing of entry clearance for business visa and new employment visa holders from Gan International Airport.

4. Processing of Business Visa within 48 hours.

5. Twenty-seven suspected cases of human trafficking submitted to investigating bodies.

6. Decentralization of Immigration services by establishing an Immigration office in HA. Atoll.

7. A ‘Document Examination Lab’ established in Gan International Airport to strengthen border security.

8. Introduction of a mobile device for immigration clearance at seaport for the first time.

9. Introduction of ‘En-route Clearance Service’ at Seaport (For efficiency and ease of service, Immigration Officers will join the passenger liners from its last port of embarkation for processing entry clearance of crews and passengers arriving to Maldives).

10. Commencement of online work visa service for the first time.

11. Establishment of Call center service for the first time to ensure access to information.

12. Introduction of ‘Rashun’ service to decentralize immigration services.

13. Development of human resource by providing further study opportunities to twenty-five Immigration officers.

14. In-house training conducted to 131 Immigration officers and 48 participants from other related institutions to gain relevant skills and knowledge.

Addressing in the event, Controller General Mohamed Ahmed Hussain and Deputy Controller Ibrahim Ashraf appreciated the hardship and dedication of the management and the officers in achieving the milestones. They further stressed on reaching such heights in 2020 as well.