Maldives new facial recognition, e-Visa systems tighten immigration process

Maldives is introducing a new mobile facial recognition system to identify undocumented foreign workers, and pushing ahead with its new e-Visa service.

An announcement from the island nation’s government says that the facial recognition system will be able to “instantly identify, verify, and retrieve all information related to a foreign national using only a photograph.”

Maldives is currently pursuing a “visionary initiative” branded as Maldives 2.0, driven by the president, Dr. Mohamed Muizzu. Muizzi is cracking down on “illegal expat operations” in the country, in a campaign that has seen multiple deployments of biometric tech.

With an area of 298 square kilometres, Maldives is the smallest country in Asia by land mass. But its population of 601,269 is spread across 1,192 islands in 26 atolls that span some 90,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean. (About 210,000 live in Malé, the capital city.) According to the U.S. Department of State, foreign migrant workers comprise approximately one-third of the population of Maldives, including at least 60,000 undocumented workers.

Per the International Organization for Migration (OIM), migrant workers play key roles in the country’s tourism, health and education sectors, as well as the construction industry, in which migrant workers, primarily from Bangladesh, make up some 88 per cent of the workforce.

MI ID Checker app puts mobile facial recognition in border control’s hands

The government, however, is determined to root out those working without papers. Maldives Immigration developed its facial recognition system, MI ID Checker, with support from the Maldives Police Service. Official communications do not specify a biometrics vendor attached to the project, but Regula has held the contract to provide face recognition for the Maldives’ national digital identity, eFaas, since December 2024.

The MI ID Checker app allows immigration officers to access personal information including passport data, work permits, visas and employer information, on a mobile device. It can also “identify individuals reported as absconded by their employers.”

Complementing the FRT function are searches by nationality and passport number, work permit number, or a QR code on a work permit card.

The government says “this development represents a critical step in strengthening the management of information related to foreign nationals residing in the Maldives and supports the government’s broader vision of implementing sustainable, technology-driven solutions to address issues concerning expatriate workers.”

Between 2023 and 2024, a series of raids across the nation saw Maldives deport 3,322 foreign nationals as part of a major crackdown on illegal immigration.

Part of the government’s campaign is a response to Maldives’ trafficking problem. The United Nations Network on Migration in the Maldives says that “irregular and undocumented migrants, especially ones who are trafficked, are highly vulnerable to exploitation and forced labour, withholding or non-payment of wages, and debt bondage.”

However, as biometrics integrates with border control efforts globally, immigration authorities’ motivations for using FRT are often redundant; they want more control, and facial recognition gives it to them. Witness the move earlier this month by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which earlier this month quietly rolled out a mobile face-scanning app called Mobile Identify, which exploits Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a law that allows local law enforcement to act as proxies of the Department of Homeland Security.

Digitized visa system lays groundwork for e-passports

Also on the Maldives’ immigration file, the country has officially launched e-Visa service, which a release calls “a historic milestone in the digital transformation of public services.”

“Visa applications can now be submitted seamlessly through a unified digital platform,” it says. “Once approved, applicants can download their e-Visa online, complete with a unique QR code to verify authenticity.”

The system goes live on November 23.

The president’s Maldives 2.0 initiative intends to position Maldives as “a digitally empowered nation.” With accessibility across the islands as a key priority, it aims to “modernize service-delivery systems, strengthen governance, and drive economic progress.” Immigration is a major component, as the country moves toward a fully digitized passport system.

The majority of Maldives’ islands are less than half a meter above sea-level, and, according to some studies, “at the current rate of climate change, large swathes of the Maldives archipelago could become uninhabitable by 2050.”

Article Topics

biometric passport  |  biometrics  |  border security  |  digital ID  |  electronic visa  |  facial recognition  |  immigration  |  Maldives  |  MI ID Checker