Court warns language schools to tighten controls on student cards

A magistrate has warned that language schools must answer for lax controls on issuing student cards to foreign nationals, as it handed a Libyan man a suspended sentence after he admitted to falsely claiming to be a student to obtain a visa

Hamouda Kalid Ali Otman, 37, was arrested at the airport yesterday on suspicion of having made false declarations to a public authority.

Police Inspector Frankie Sammut explained that the accused was in possession of a valid student card as he had originally been studying English in Malta.

The accused had abandoned the language course, but instead of handing in his student visa, he continued to make use it for his frequent trips between the countries.

Inspector Sammut explained that Otman had applied for a residence permit, but had only spent 16 days in Malta over the past 12 months.

This revelation angered Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, who remarked that the school authorities had to answer for this irregularity. “We cannot have schools, to whom we have granted concessions to allow them to operate, then be used to circumvent the law.” The Inspector assured the court that the matter was in hand. 

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi explained that the accused has children attending private schools in Malta. Whilst his original intention had been to come to Malta to study English, his wife was not granted a visa and he had ended up dividing his time between Malta and Libya.

A removal order was issued for the accused, who will also be placed on the “refused landing” list.

In view of his admission, the court handed the man a 14-month prison sentence, suspended for 30 months. The court, however warned that it cannot tolerate this type of maneuvers especially in view of the current climate, commenting that “it is unacceptable to use such methods to evade state controls.”