A homeowner is feeling “unsafe in her own bed” after a foreigner successfully applied for a residency permit using her address.

A Mellieħa resident said she was shocked to find a letter from the Department of Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs addressed to a foreign man claiming to live in her property, that he had been granted a residency card.

The letter, sent to her secondary residence in Swieqi, informed this man, believed to be from the Gulf, that his new documentation was ready to be picked up from government offices.

“I come and go between the two properties I own. I haven’t seen anyone loitering around my letterbox and my neighbours have no idea who this mystery man is.

“It’s very unsettling to think someone stole a part of my identity so easily,” she said.

The issue of identity theft was raised in Parliament on Monday by Opposition home affairs spokesman Jason Azzopardi.

Identity Malta, the government agency responsible for processing identity documentation, denied the applicants were in any way connected to the citizenship scheme.

The procedure for residence applications, it added, had been bolstered to crack down on falsified applications and now required proof of residence.

More in The Times of Malta.