One of the newly introduced measures at the time of the pandemic included filling out the ‘Imuga’ form, which noted all the travel details of passengers who are leaving and entering the country.
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Talking about the COVID-19 pandemic in 2024 makes it seem like the pandemic happened years ago when the pandemic only occurred four years ago. Although it was merely four years ago, a lot has changed regarding how the world works. More companies started implementing work-from-home opportunities, while the cleanliness and safety standards around the world changed up a knot. Another change that we observed during the recent pandemic was the aviation and tourism industry. With the pandemic, security measures became stricter, and airport security and safety became a high priority.
As countries all around the world introduced new measures to identify people who are arriving and departing from a destination, the Maldives also took safety measures as a top priority. One of the newly introduced measures included filling out the ‘Imuga’ form, which noted all the travel details of passengers who are leaving and entering the country. This would give authorities a detailed overview of the passenger’s travel itinerary, including all the countries they plan to visit and the layover destination. One of the main things the Imuga form could identify is whether the traveller landed or travelled to a destination that was considered high risk in terms of catching COVID-19.
Although the strict rules and regulations such as mandatory quarantine for 14 days after arriving at a destination were soon dismissed as the pandemic slowed down, the Imuga application form remained in place. This meant that travellers were required to fill out a form both for departure as well as arrival. Now, however, after four years of the pandemic, the Maldives Immigration has finally declared that the Controller General of Immigration has decided that outbound travellers will no longer need to fill out the ‘Traveller Declaration’ or Imuga form starting 15th August 2024.
With this, travellers can now leave the stress of filling out the traveller declaration form behind, and enjoy their travels without the added paperwork starting this Wednesday - the 15th of August.
