A 10 day remand period has been set for one of the Maldivians of the 12 who were taken into custody last night in a nation-wide operation in Sri Lanka.

All others have since been released.

Foreign Ministry previously revealed that those who were taken into custody due to visa and passport issues such as expired visas and passports.

Cases of three were submitted to the court; one of the men had stayed over 09 months after expiration of his visa, and had a passport that had expired eight months ago. The second man was charged for importing banned cigarettes into Sri Lanka and not carrying any identification or his passport with him and another woman was charged for overstaying her visa for six months.

The woman who overstayed her visa and the man who had imported banned cigarettes were released on bail.

The 10 day remand was set for the man who overstayed his visa for 09 months and had an expired Maldivian passport for 08 months.

Sri Lanka stepped up their security following the April 21 terror attacks that rocked the nation last year. The government had appealed all foreigners to carry identification and their passports with them at all times, and to keep passports readily available in the event of an unwarranted search by the authorities.

The Maldivian Embassy in Sri Lanka has also on numerous occasions asked to be vary of these rules.