Prime Minister, stop mocking the electorate

The Prime Minister, pleased as Punch in Algiers, has told the press that the Algerian government has laughed off visa scam allegations.

But it’s not up to the Algerian government to laugh off the allegations, is it? Or to adapt what one of the call-girls famously said when testifying in the 1960s Profumo trial in Britain: “They would, wouldn’t they?”

It is excruciatingly awkward that our prime minister would ally himself to the Algerian powers and against the interests of the Maltese public who demand that we know why Malta granted EU Schengen visas to 7,000 Algerian citizens who never came to Malta.

The government has said that everything is in order because the names of the Algerians were cleared “through the EU system”. But that is not the point, is it. The point is that the information those Algerians gave so as to obtain their visas through the Maltese consulate in Algiers was fraudulent, and fraudulent applications continue to be made.

In specifying the purpose of their visit, or their address in Malta when applying for their visa, they say ‘studying at English language schools’ and then never turn up at all or leave after just a token presence. Their stated addresses in Malta are false, too – they are making ‘shell bookings’ via Airbnb and Booking.com, and then not turning up to honour the booking. People working at the airport have reported that the Algerians who fly into Malta on the Air Malta flight from Algiers don’t even leave the airport but wait to catch the next flight to Paris or some other prominent European capital.

The purpose of a Maltese visa is to allow the applicant to visit Malta. If the visa is granted to applicants who the issuing authority know will not visit Malta (except to fly into the airport and stay in transit), then the issuing authority is complicit in processing the fraudulent applications.