The Valletta Summit On Migration was “disappointing” because very little substance came out of it, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said yesterday.
Speaking in an interview on Radio101, Dr Busuttil said not much had come out of the EU-Africa leaders’ meeting last week, which he said, could have been achieved with a simple stroke of a pen back in Brussels.
“Before and during this summit we saw a lot of photos being taken. It was described as ‘historic’ [by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat] before it even started and a permanent monument was erected before we even knew the results,” he said.
The summit, held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, in Valletta, saw European and African leaders agree, among other things, on a new €1.8 billion trust fund. Dr Busuttil, however, insisted this could have been set up by the European Commission itself without a summit having to be held in Malta.
Was there bribery? Is it true a relative of the PM himself was involved?
The fund has also come under fire by international humanitarian NGOs, which have questioned how the money would be used and what standards would be in place to crack down on abuse.
Sticking with the migration theme, Dr Busuttil questioned how Dr Muscat could say that he was committed to acting on migration when he was “opening the tap” himself.
“The Prime Minister can’t expect to tell us while wearing a straight face that he is fighting the migration problem with when thousands of visas were issued to Algerians under his watch,” he said, adding that most of these would spend a short time on the island before moving on to mainland Europe.
About 7,000 visas were issued to Algerians by the Maltese Embassy in Algeria over the past 18 months prompting questions as to how this was done.
Dr Busuttil questioned why the government had not launched an independent inquiry into the matter in light of allegations that have been about the visas given to Algerians.
“Was there bribery? Are the police looking into it? Is it true a relative of the Prime Minister himself was involved? We deserve answers,” he said.
Questions sent to the government yesterday remained unanswered at the time of writing. However, a spokesman insisted that the number of visas issued to Algerians by the Maltese Embassy was significantly lower than those handed out by other embassies in the country.