Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/927417
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 17 JANUARY 2018 News 3 MASSIMO COSTA A 40-year-old Syrian national, who has lived in Malta for 12 years, has told MaltaToday of his unreasonable wait to receive a renewal for his resi- dence permit, without which we can neither work nor travel. The man, who did not want to be identified (and from here onwards referred to as Adnan), applied for a renewal of his refugee residence permit early in November, and was told it would take four to six weeks for the permit to be renewed. "When I first came to Malta, I was given a three-year resi- dence permit. After that, my permit was renewed yearly, how- ever, most recently, I had another three- year permit," Adnan told us. "I have now once again applied to renew my permit for a period of three years, but, de- spite waiting for ten weeks, I have not yet received any reply on renewal from the citi- zenship department," he said, as he showed us a receipt for a residence application from the De- partment for Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs, dated 8 November, 2017. Adnan, who came to Malta alone, lives in Zebbug, speaks both Maltese and English, and explained that he had previ- ously worked on the island in the car repair sector, but had intermittently also spent some time working abroad. "Without a resi- dence permit, however, I can- not work in Malta or anywhere in the European Union. I was offered a job in Germany, but unless my permit arrives soon, I will lose the offer," he main- tained. "I was also told by staff at the citizenship department's Hal Far outlet that, since my per- mit hasn't arrived and I conse- quently cannot work, I should apply for unemployment ben- efit. But I don't want benefits and have never applied for them." "I cannot go back to Syria, but I don't want to be in any way a burden on the Maltese taxpayer," he added. He said that applications were taken in by the department in batches of 30, so it shouldn't be the case that the delay is being caused by too large a number of applications to process. "Each time I go to the Hal Far office to ask on my ap- plication's progress, I am told to come back a week later to check if the renewed permit has arrived." "I have no idea when I will re- ceive it – they won't even give me a time frame," he said, re- marking that in previous years renewed permits would arrive within two weeks of the appli- cation having been filed. Man's residence permit renewal woes preventing him from working The Syrian national, in Malta for 12 years, said he had now been waiting for ten weeks for response from citizenship department I cannot go back to Syria, but I don't want to be in any way a burden on the Maltese taxpayer Adnan (not his real name) told us of his unreasonable wait to receive a renewed residence permit and (below) the renewal application, submitted more than ten weeks ago and still without any reply