Average of 1,300 passports reported lost every year since 2013

Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia also said that roughly 60 people are charged in court every year over falsification of passports

Every year an average of 1,300 are reported missing and never located, according to statistics tabled in parliament on Monday.

Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia was responding to a number of parliamentary questions by Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina, who asked the minister for the number of passports reported lost to the police as well as the number of people charged with using falsified passports.

According to the minister, 1,787 passports were reported missing in 2018, of which 275 were eventually found, leaving 1,512 still unaccounted for. The lowest number of missing passports was recorded in 2013, with the number increasing every year since.

Turning to the number of people charged in court with falsifying, or knowlingly making use of a falsified passport, Farrugia said that since 2013 there had been a total of 395 people charged, the highest – 101 – being registered in 2015. The vast majority of those charged were males, aged between 15 and 60, the miniter said.

Four of the 395, the minister said, had been cleared, while 12 cases were still pending. The remainder were found guilty by the Maltese courts.

The individuals ranged from a variety of different countries, the minister said, including Russia, Colombia and a several African nations.