Updated | Shuttered Marsa bar is residence address for 26 foreign nationals

A shuttered bar on Marsa Road, in Marsa, is hosting 26 foreign nationals who submitted the derelict watering hole’s address as proof of their residence in Malta.

But outside the First and Last Bar, the signs clearly show that nobody lives here: the place is on sale.

And yet, images obtained by MaltaToday show that over two-dozen people have been allowed to claim this place as their address to obtain an identity card.

The names of these people were all registered under 1, Marsa Road, Marsa and yet no checks are apparently made by the identity card offices to confirm the veracity of these claims.

Reacting to this newspaper’s report, Identity Malta executive chairman Joe Vella Bonnici said that 24 of the applications were submitted before January 2013. He insisted that "since the introduction of the National Identity Management System in 2013, no applications were registered under the mentioned address”.

In what he claimed was ‘a right of reply’ – issued through the Department of Information – Vella Bonnici also said that there were no valid resident permits showing the Marsa address.

With a police investigation into the operations of Identity Malta having shed light on a racket into the issuance of residence permits for foreign nationals, the information received by MaltaToday illustrates the ease with which people applying for an ID card in Malta can claim some form of ‘residence’.

The names seen by this newspaper included nationalities from the Horn of Africa, Sudan, Nigeria, and also Canada, all retrieved from a search that listed the Marsa address.

Vella Bonnici said two entries referred to a deceased Maltese citizen who made use of the same address and another Canadian citizen who used to reside in the same road in Marsa.

The ‘false’ address is redolent of complaints made in 2014 in the House of Representatives by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, of people learning that their address was being used for the registration of other foreign nationals.

A Mellieha resident had later corroborated claims of identity theft, when she told The Times that a foreigner had successfully applied for a residency permit using her address. The resident had received a letter from the Department of Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs addressed to a foreign man claiming to live in her property, that he had been granted a residency card. The letter had been to her secondary residence in Swieqi. “I come and go between the two properties I own... It’s very unsettling to think someone stole a part of my identity so easily,” she had told the newspaper.

Identity Malta in a reaction had then declared that it had changed procedure on the granting of residence permits because of the theft of addresses. It said that it had launched an immediate investigation in August 2014 upon receiving a report of identity theft, and claimed that the situation arose because of a shortcoming in the procedure which has been in place for a number of years.

MaltaToday understands that foreign nationals in Malta require an e-residence card to able to obtain a work permit. At times, the poorest categories will submit any address in a bid to obtain the crucial identity card which is necessary for them to work.

Identity Malta ‘racket’

Earlier this week, the government announced that police investigators had discovered a racket in the issuance of residence permits that had been “ongoing for a number of years”.

The racket is unconnected to the way identity cards are issued on addresses declared by their bearers, who are criminally liable when they give a false address. 

On Wednesday police from the Economic Crimes Unit led a raid at the office of Identity Malta, arresting a number of people for interrogation. The investigation was initiated upon information received by the government and passed on to the Security Service.

The government said the racket had been going on since 2010. “It turns out that this racket, in its various forms, has been ongoing for several years and investigations are now taking place into other cases. The government is taking this abuse seriously,” the Office of the Prime Minister said in a statement.

On his part, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said the police raid was “a huge scandalous affair, proof of institutionalised corruption” within government.

“14,000 residence permits were issued to foreigners in 2014 alone… as much as Malta has received migrants in 10 years. It is an extremely serious problem and an independent inquiry must be immediately set up. People are no longer trusting the system or Identity Malta,” he said.

Statement by Identity Malta executive chairman

With reference to the article titled Shuttered Marsa bar is residence address for 26 foreign nationals published by Maltatoday on Sunday 27 September 2015, Identity Malta would like to make a number of clarifications.

The 24 applications for residence mentioned in the article were submitted before January 2013 and the screenshot published in the article shows a record of all the individuals who made use of the said address at different times. These applications were registered in the old electronic system and since the introduction of the National Identity Management System in 2013, no applications were registered under the mentioned address. It is also worth mentioning that there are no valid residence permits showing the address referred to in the article.

The other two entries quoted by MaltaToday refer to a deceased Maltese citizen who made use of the same address and another Canadian citizen who used to reside in the same road in Marsa.

Ever since Identity Malta assumed responsibility of the Citizenship and Expatriates department, the Agency has taken various measures to strengthen any weaknesses that were existent in the past. The Department of Citizenship and Expatriates is also aiming to put in place automatic checks which would enable the Department to detect abuse at the very beginning of the application process; crucial checks which were not in place under previous administration.

Identity Malta is in full collaboration with the authorities during the ongoing investigations that were initiated after information was passed on to the Police by the Agency itself.