Bribery claims on Tripoli embassy

The government has alerted the police to allegations that officials at Malta’s embassy in Libya are asking for bribes to issue EU Schengen visas.

According to the claims, officials at Malta’s Tripoli consulate, which falls within the embassy, have been demanding significant kickbacks from visa applicants.

This has allegedly pushed the cost of a one-month Schengen visa up from 120 Libyan dinars (€73.50) to a massive 1100 dinars (€673), with longer-term visas costing even more.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the ministry had received “a few unconfirmed allegations” of impropriety at its Tripoli consulate and that the information had been “immediately forwarded to the Police Commissioner for further investigation before anything appeared in the press”. The spokesman said the Libyan ambassador to Malta had not raised the issue and Malta had not involved Libyan officials in the matter.

The spokesman also said that other, unrelated allegations made against an official at the Tripoli embassy had been investigated and determined to be unfounded. It is not known what these other allegations involved.

The Times was tipped off about the alleged foul play by a Libyan man whose brother had been charged 1000 dinar for a Schengen visa. According to the man, one specific embassy official in Tripoli is in cahoots with a travel agency, making the issuing of visas contigent on underhand payments.

If the allegations are true, it would be the second time in as many years that Malta embassy officials were embroiled in visa-issuing scandals.

Last year, an Indian working at Malta’s High Commission in New Delhi was sacked in connection with the illegal issuing of Schengen visas. Investigations by Indian police had found that recipients were paying up to €8,000 to obtain an illegal visa.

Malta was one of the only EU states to keep its Tripoli embassy open throughout the Libyan war. Although Maltese diplomatic staff members were evacuated following the start of the conflict, local staff kept the embassy ticking over.

The embassy resumed full services at the beginning of September – one of the first from among EU states to do so – making it an essential port of call for Libyans who needed a visa to gain access to the EU.

Although many countries have reopened their embassies in Tripoli, only two EU states are currently issuing visas, with the Maltese embassy having issued 1,100 – an average of 25 daily – over the past two months.

It is also issuing visas on behalf of Italy, whose Tripoli embassy was set on fire in the course of the conflict.

The Times subsequently discovered several posts discussing the alleged bribery on the Facebook page of Almanara Media, a UK-based Libyan media platform.

A number of comments appear to confirm the allegations. “100 per cent true,” one user wrote succinctly. Others also confirmed the claims, saying they had experienced embassy misconduct first-hand.

Several comments make specific reference to an embassy official by name and allege he is implicated in embassy misconduct. Another alleged that the practice has been going on for “for years”.