The Foreign Affairs’ Ministry will be setting up a unit to better understand what was causing the bottleneck in the granting of visas, Minister George Vella said.

Since he took over the role as Foreign Affairs’ Minister, he said, the problems with visas “stood out”. People of various nationalities, such as Libyans and Russians, complained that they were not being granted.

He was speaking during a meeting with officials from the General Workers’ Union during which the union’s general secretary, Tony Zarb, raised the point that there was a problem with “extra bureaucracy” in the granting of visas.

Mr Zarb also spoke about the need to set up a section, within the Employment and Training Corporation, to help irregular migrants find jobs.

This would curb abuse and precarious work and ensure that migrants were not exploited. Dr Vella said he liked the idea of setting up this section.

Speaking about foreign workers in general, Dr Vella said it was important to have “the right mix” and to ensure Malta did not get to a situation were the indigenous population faced unemployment.

Dr Vella also said that the Labour Government would work harder to ensure that other EU countries “put their money where their mouth is” and showed solidarity by taking on migrants who landed in Malta.

Mr Zarb and Dr Vella agreed that Maltese embassies situated in various parts of the world should act as a showcase for Malta.

Dr Vella added that there would be an audit of Malta’s embassies to ensure that money was being spent efficiently and that Malta was present in the right places.