At the end of 2012, the Department of Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs announced changes that would take effect from the new year to replace identity cards for non-Maltese nationals resident in Malta.
They were informed that the issuance of identity cards would be discontinued and the process would be replaced by the new e-Residence Permit scheme. The problem was that the Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs Department was totally unprepared for the administrative load that confronted it. Chaos ensued.
Despite promises by the Government on taking office that the procedures would be streamlined, confusion still reigns at Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs. The procedures remain unwieldy. The situation continues to be described by foreign residents caught in the bureaucratic tangle as “chaotic” and “disgraceful”. Those who have turned up personally at the office find lines of people stretching into the road, disorderly queue-barging and resulting frustration.
The unsatisfactory situation has again been highlighted by the case of one English parent resident in Malta with one daughter already attending primary school who has found the enrolment of her five-year old son at the same school virtually barred to her because she did not have the new electronic residence card as proof of residence in Malta – this despite the validity of the old, regular identity card having been extended by the government until November 30.
This foreign resident has been waiting for an appointment at the Department of Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs since January to start the process of obtaining the new e-card. But despite this, this parent, who had every entitlement to enrol her son at the school, was informed by the Directorate for Educational Services that her existing, officially valid identity card would not – in a twist worthy of Franz Kafka – be deemed valid for enrolment purposes. She would have to pay for her son’s education if she and her husband did not produce the temporary receipts for their e-residence cards pending their issue.
Even allowing for the lack of joined-up government that characterises bureaucracies the world over, this individual case, affecting as it does one family whose young children are only just starting school, illustrates vividly the unacceptable blight which has been caused to thousands of foreign residents in Malta as they seek to negotiate the bureaucratic hurdles placed in their paths by an inefficient and seemingly uncaring Administration.
When the inefficiency and confusion at the Department of Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs first revealed itself at the start of the year, the incoming Labour Government was able to point the finger of blame at its predecessors in office. It promised to act quickly to improve the situation. The position appears to be as inconvenient and inefficient as it has been all along.
The consequences for individual families caught up in this bureaucratic nightmare are unacceptable in a country which encourages foreign residents to settle here and that derives huge economic and cultural benefits from their presence.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs must step in decisively to improve the situation. At the very least, the number of civil servants dealing with the backlog of applications should be reinforced and other government departments – such as Education, Health and others which have close dealings with foreign residents – should be alerted to the need for greater flexibility and understanding while the e-residence cards debacle is resolved.
Malta wishes to attract, not repel, foreign residents. The sooner this embarrassing bureaucratic shambles is resolved, the better.