Updated - Adds minister's reaction - Applicants for Maltese citizenship have, during their applications for residence permits, been given Maltese addresses with which they have absolutely no link in an attempt to give the impression that they have been living in Malta, Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi said in Parliament this evening.
Speaking during the Budget debate on the Ministry of Home Affairs, Dr Azzopardi explained that a residence permit is needed before one applies for Maltese citizenship.
He asked whether it was true that in the second half of May, a residence permit was issued to a Russian man, and in October a permit was issued to a man from the Gulf, when they did not actually have a Malta address.
More importantly, was it true that Identity Malta and even the ministry had received reports in the summer of ‘addresses theft’ by foreigners who when they applied for a residence permit in Malta were given local addresses which they had no link with?
His information, Dr Azzopardi said, was that addresses in Swieqi and St Julian’s had been given by a Libyan man and a woman from the Caucasus in June. Indeed, a complaint made to the police by the actual resident at one of the addresses spoke of ‘multiple’ cases of identity/address theft.
Was this the due diligence the government had boasted about when it promoted the Maltese citizenship scheme?
Later in his address Dr Azzopardi also asked how Malta had issued a large number of Schengen visas to applicants whose applications were earlier refused by the embassies of Spain and France in North Africa and the Malta police too had recommended approval.
Also, how was it that the Maltese ambassador in China was allowed to put pressure on the Malta police to issue visas to Chinese people despite a police recommendation for refusal? These people came from some of the poorest regions of China and clearly could not sustain themselves in Malta.
MINISTER'S DENIAL
In his reply later, Dr Mallia said Dr Azzopardi appeared to be confusing issues when he asked questions about ‘theft of addresses’ and the issue of visas.
It was not true that visas were being issued ‘like cheesecakes.’ The number of visas was lower issued this year was actually lower than before.
As for the claim of ‘address theft’ the authorities actually demanded to see lease agreements for proof of residence before issuing residence permits.
In his remarks Dr Mallia also said there have so far been 300 applications for Maltese citizenship under the Individual Investor Programme.
Interjecting, Dr Azzopardi said he never linked the granting of visas with the citizenship scheme, but pointed out that residence permits were needed before one applied for citizenship.
POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN THE AFM, POLICE
In his address, Dr Azzopardi hit out at undue political interference in the Armed Forces of Malta. Political recommendations were needed for people to join the AFM and to be promoted, he said. Interference, particularly by the Home Affairs Ministry, was such that even the Commander, AFM, did not have control over the personnel section of the Service.
The AFM, Dr Azzopardi said, lacked strategic direction and had become an inward-looking force where politics was everything. Almost two years on, the government still had to publish its defence policy.
Political interference was also strong in the police force, to the extent that the Malta Police Association in an unprecedented move, had filed a judicial protest over performance contracts imposed on the most senior officer ranks.
Dr Azzopardi noted that the government in the Budget had not kept its promise to settle overtime payments promised to the police. There was no new provision for extra duties. The police, he said, were lacking basic equipment, including up-to-date bullet proof vests and items of their uniform.
The police, he said, have been shorn of their identity and autonomy, as best shown by the incident involving a shooting by the minister’s own driver and the subsequent attempted cover-up.
Dr Azzopardi asked the minister a long series of questions about his actions and those of his officials in the wake of the shooting incident, including what had been discussed between him and the driver over the phone, and why the police did not take the policeman’s mobile phone, as was normally the case. Where gunshot residue tests made on the minister's driver and his car?
Dr Azzopardi said the minister could not be believed when he said that he had not seen the statement issued by his own ministry about warning shots 'fired into the air'. Were that the case, he was incompetent.
Political responsibility needed to be shouldered.