Identitàgate is not about a few isolated incidents

A fortnight ago this leader said that Byron Camilleri’s silence on the Identità scandal was deafening. Things have not changed much since then. The Home Affairs Minister, who is responsible for the agency, has not uttered a word except to rebut statements issued by the Opposition. 

The issue has not gone away but rather become even more complicated and worrying but to the government it only becomes a problem when the Opposition speaks. 

If Camilleri’s silence is the result of prudence not to disrupt any ongoing investigation, he should say so clearly face-to-face in a press conference. 

Identitàgate is not about a few isolated incidents of stolen identity but a big problem that can pose a veritable security risk to Malta and so the minister has an obligation to inform the people what is going on. 

Identità’s only reaction so far has been to say that it conducted an internal investigation and passed on its findings to the police. Three police arraignments concerning Egyptian nationals who obtained a residency permit on false pretences were the result of this investigation. But while two of the three Egyptians admitted wrongdoing and were sentenced to jail without proof having to be submitted in court, the third man pleaded not guilty and the case is ongoing. It is concerning that the magistrate in the latter case even ordered the police to investigate two officials from Identità over suspected perjury after they gave conflicting testimony in court. 

But the problem goes much further than the arraignment of three migrants who benefitted from what is evidently a racket involving officials within Identità. 

The three Egyptian men obtained ‘valid’ ID cards from the government agency. They did not falsify ID documents. This is why somebody from the inside must have been involved. So far, no official from the organisation has been charged and we now have a magisterial inquiry that will be doing what the police should have started doing long ago. 

The inquiry, requested by former MP Jason Azzopardi, will probe all the accusations he has been making and the numerous cases that have since surfaced of Maltese individuals receiving mail at home addressed to foreigners they do not know and who have never lived with them. 

The minister has a duty in these circumstances to say something, especially now that the scandal appears to have taken a more sinister twist. 

People are now coming forward with hospital appointments they were never expecting. The conclusion is that somebody used their identity details – including name, address and ID card number – to access public healthcare services. Some of the stories could be absurd, if they were not so scary, such as the instance when a person who went for a regular check-up and was told the hospital system is flagging them as dead. 

There may be a perfectly innocent explanation for the mix up of medical records, which could include inputting the wrong ID card number when entering the patient’s medical records. But when several such cases are flagged and in circumstances where address theft on perfectly legitimate ID cards is going on, the odds of this being a genuine mistake start dropping. 

The Data Protection Commissioner is investigating the latest incidents involving the use of someone else’s identity on hospital patient records. Hopefully, the investigation will shed some light on what is happening in the healthcare system and the vetting processes that take place. Patients need assurance that their details are not be abused. 

But this is only one aspect, albeit a very sensitive one because it involves health records, of a much bigger problem that has at its root the inside workings at Identità. 

If thousands of ID cards were issued to non-EU foreign nationals on a fraudulent basis – the Egyptians used false marriage certificates to say they were married to a British woman thus entitling them to a 10-year residency permit – or using somebody else’s home address, the matter has serious implications for national security because it shows that no proper vetting process was undertaken. It means the authorities cannot guarantee that they know who these foreign nationals are, what their intentions are, where they are living and what they are doing. 

This leader hopes that the inquiry into this scandal moves fast enough to secure computers, mobile phones, electronic systems and logs, which can provide crucial evidence. Getting to the bottom of this mess is of paramount importance.