At the end of last year, the Department of Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs published a number of press advertisements and notices announcing the changes which would take effect from the new year in replacing identity cards for non-Maltese nationals resident in Malta.
They were informed that the issuing of identity cards would be discontinued after December 31, 2012 and the process would be replaced by the new e-residence permit scheme to be introduced from January 10, 2013. Their identity cards would remain valid until March 31 and residence documents would be valid for identification purposes until June 30.
Foreigners living in Malta and Gozo were told that the applications for the e-residence card would be received from European Union and Third Country nationals (that is, nationals from non-EU countries) and had to be submitted ‘in person’ and ‘by appointment’ at the Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs Office in Castille. The cards, when ready, were to be collected ‘in person’ at another office in Valletta.
The procedure has proved cumbersome and unwieldy. Chaos and confusion have reigned at the Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs Office.
The appointments system by e-mail or telephone appears to have broken down because both telephone calls and e-mails remain unanswered.
The situation has been described by foreign residents caught in the bureaucratic tangle as “chaotic”, “disgraceful” and “in shambles”.
Those who have given up on the telephone or e-mail appointment system, and turned up personally at the Valletta office to find out what was happening, have found “panic and chaos” and lines of people stretching into the road.
Residents living in Gozo have had to travel to Malta.
It is quite clear that procedures for a simple exercise in issuing new identity documents to expatriates have been overwhelmed by the numbers that have applied. This surely should have been anticipated. The number of EU and Third Country nationals here is well known. Yet, not enough staff was deployed within the Department for Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs to deal with the flow while the time frame set for completing the process was too tight.
It is also questionable why a relatively straightforward process like documents renewal should require the attendance ‘in person’ and ‘by appointment’ of the individuals concerned when Malta prides itself, rightly, on its e-government.
The simple process of renewal is one which, with a little forward planning, should have been completed via the internet. It may be too late now to alter the current arrangements regarding the e-residence scheme but this is surely a lesson for the future, which the new Government should carefully examine.
As to alleviating the reportedly shambolic situation, the Minister for Foreign Affairs should immediately invite the Management Efficiency Unit to step in and propose solutions. It would appear that, at the very least, the number of civil servants dealing with the backlog of applications should be reinforced and, if necessary, another office established to ease the strain on resources.
An office to handle expatriate applications should also be set up in Gozo.
Furthermore, a formal extension to the time frame for completion of the exercise should be announced.
While the new Administration can understandably state that the chaotic situation that has arisen is not of their making, they now have the responsibility to sort matters out. The sooner that the Minister for Foreign Affairs takes a grip of the situation, the better.