The Nationalist Party said on Thursday that a report by the Auditor-General had confirmed its concerns about the way the Malta consulate in Algiers issued visas.

In a statement over the signature of Beppe Fenech Adami, shadow minister for national security and Carm Mifsud Bonnici, shadow minister for foreign affairs, the PN observed that owing to a lack of transparency, the Auditor-General could not be sure that money had not changed hands for the granted of visas to be hastened for certain people.

The PN said political responsibility needed to be shouldered because the findings of the report were worrying.

The report showed that 500 applicants for a visa were recommended for refusal by the police but they were still granted a visa by the consulate. 

For a long time, Malta had been issuing Schengen visas which enabled people to come to Malta and then disappear in Europe. Of 3,696 Algerians granted a visa by the consulate, 2,846 had not returned to their country and there was no trace of them. This amounted to a threat to Malta's security and that of other countries, the PN said.  

There was no transparency and accountability in the way the visa process was handled, the audit investigation had found. 

The report also confirmed that it was an unexplained decision by Castille in 2013 which led to the setting up the consulate, when the consul was the prime minister's cousin. 

The Auditor-General had said that the system of vetting applicants for visas was inadequate. Action was therefore needed to establish responsibilities, the PN said. Action was also needed for legal and political responsibilities to be borne. 

 

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