[WATCH] PN warns Libyan medical visa racket has risked national security

PN Deputy Leader argues medical visa racket is further proof that the Labour government was being held hostage to corruption (Video: Chris Mangion)

A medical visa racket for Libyan nationals has placed Malta’s national security at risk, and is further proof that the Labour government was being held hostage to corruption, the Nationalist Party has warned.

Neville Gafa, a civil servant at the Health Ministry, allegedly charged Libyans a €2,500 monthly fee to secure medical visas, treatment and accommodation, as well as an additional €100 charge. He was allegedly handed around 42 Libyan passports to apply for medical visas, pocketing a tidy €38,000 in the process.

PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami told a press conference that the scandal has its roots in Castille, arguing that Gafa is very close to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff Keith Schembri and OPM minister Konrad Mizzi.

“The arrogance on show by top government officials is limitless, and indeed Gafa’s reaction to the scandal was to attack the Nationalist party and to praise Muscat and his clique at Castille.”

“One would expect the minister concerned and the government to react to these reports and take immediate action,” Fenech Adami said.

“But we have a prime minister hostage to one of his ministers and his chief of staff, and that same minister is now hostage to one of his staff.”

This was a perfect case of birds of a feather flocking together, he added.

“Even more so, this is a case of normalisation of deviant behaviour, where someone involved in such a scandal, goes on with his life as if nothing had happened.”

The Times of Malta reported today that the police have searched Gafa’s office at the Health Ministry.

In a statement, the Labour Party said the opposition insisted on trying to act the part of prosecutor, jury and judge, but – because it had no credibility – it was not being taken seriously.

The PL noted that the opposition was being aggressive on allegations that had already been denied by the person involved and which the police and attorney general were still investigating.

At the same time, the opposition did not act its MP Tony Bezzina, who had been found guilty of having sent government workers to work at the PN club in Zurrieq and had then forced them to lie under oath, it said.

Nor had the opposition censured Nationalist MP Chris Said, who was criticised by the auditor general for undue interference in the allocation of funds for local councils, the PLS said.

It also referred to the decision by the Nationalist Party to reinstate Samuel Azzopardi as mayor of Victoria, Gozo, after a court had found him guilty of perilous driving while under the influence of alcohol.

The PL accused opposition leader Simon Busuttil of double standards and said that never before in its history had the Nationalist party stooped so low.