Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1467738
THE migrant rescue charity Sea-Eye has accused the Mal- tese rescue coordination centre of refusing to coordinate rescue efforts for a distress call from migrants at sea inside the Mal- tese search and rescue zone. During the night of Wednes- day, 11 May and Thursday 12 May, a distress call reached the Sea-Eye 4 vessel via the or- ganization AlarmPhone, from 24 people in distress in a small wooden boat in the Maltese search and rescue zone. The people said they had al- ready fled Benghazi, Libya on 8 May, They are from Eritrea, Sudan, Chad, Libya, Syria and Egypt. Sea-Eye said that on 12 May, oil tanker Ross Sea approached the wooden boat. During the radio communication between Sea-Eye 4 and Ross Sea, the tank- er's captain stated that he tried to reach the rescue coordination centre in Malta, but received no response for a while. "RCC Mal- ta told me to keep on monitor- ing. They asked me to just stay around and keep on monitoring from distance," he told Sea-Eye 4. "If Malta had coordinated the rescue and had it carried out by the Ross Sea, whose next port of destination would have been the Maltese capital Valletta, Malta would have had to take in the people seeking protection," Sea- Eye's Gordon Isler said. "We have once again witnessed Malta instructing even mer- chant ships required to provide assistance, to keep their distance from people seeking protection in distress at sea. These methods are inhumane and violate basic human rights," Isler said. 6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 MAY 2022 NEWS Tenth Orchestral Charity Concert under the distinguished patronage of H.E. Dr George Vella President of Malta featuring the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Resident Conductor Prof. Michael Laus with the participation of e Goldberg Ensemble and soloist Tenor Cli Zammit Stevens at St John's Co-Cathedral on Wednesday 1 st June 2022 at 19.30 hrs. By gracious permission of H.E. the President of Malta, the concert will be followed by a reception in the Palace Courtyard. Entrance to the Concert and Reception is strictly by invitation Invitation-voucher(s) available from MASMOM oces, Casa Lanfreducci Pjazza Jean de Valette, adjacent to Our Lady of Victory Church,Valletta Tel. no.: 2122 6919 / 2124 6406 info@orderofmalta-malta.org.mt e Maltese Association of the Order of Malta and the St John's Co-Cathedral Foundation present their Advertissement 2022 print.indd 1 09/05/2022 16:53 MATTHEW VELLA AMERICAN congressmen have presented a bill to the United States House of Repre- sentatives, to revoke countries' eligibility for the Visa Waiver Program if they sell passports through citizenship-by-invest- ment. Malta is one such country that is part of the American vi- sa waiver programme, allowing travellers to the US to be fast- tracked through less onerous checks than other third-coun- try travellers. It is also cur- rently facing an infringement procedure by the European Commission over its continued sale of citizenship. The bipartisan bill – No Trav- el for Traffickers Act – by Bur- gess Owens (Democrat) and Steve Cohen (Republican), spe- cifically calls to ban participa- tion of countries that sell pass- ports from participation in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. It all asks that the govern- ment cooperate with the Unit- ed Kingdom and the European Union to eliminate Schengen area visa-free travel for coun- tries that sell passports, as well as prohibit the use of American money to vet "golden passport" applicants. The bill has the support of Marshall Billingslea, the former assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the United States Department of Treasury, who visited Malta in 2019 and had expressed concern at Malta's role in fighting financial crime. "Congressmen Owens and Cohen are leading to protect our security by introducing bipartisan legislation to clamp down on the dangerous prac- tice by some countries who sell their citizenship and passports. These so-called 'golden pass- port' schemes are abused by criminals and traffickers from around the world, and this practice needs to come to an end," Billingslea said in a state- ment of support for the two American congressmen. In a visit to Malta, Billingslea had told the press that gold- en passport schemes needed careful scrutiny. "Indeed, one might even question why it is necessary in a country like Malta with such an outper- forming economy," he had told The Times. "The revenue [from citizenship schemes] might be nice to have, but we certainly hope the government recognises the risks that this brings with it." The two congressmen insist that golden passports are "no- toriously abused by human traffickers, international crim- inals, and corrupt oligarchs", and accuse Russians of being chief buyers. "Human trafficking kingpins and other international crimi- nal enterprises rely heavily on their passport purchasing pow- er to freely travel the world, establish a foothold in multiple countries, open bank accounts, and evade accountability," Ow- ens said. "The No Travel for Traffickers Act addresses the severe security risks of golden passports, signalling a critical step in our efforts to isolate bad actors around the globe." Another bill introduced in 2021, the Golden Visa Ac- countability Act, calls on the Department of State to estab- lish and maintain a database for investor visa denials due to the applicant's involvement in corruption or serious human rights abuses. Generally, the United States offers immigrant visas to qual- ified individuals who invest in the United States and create a certain number of full-time jobs. "Initially, the database must include records related to such denials of U.S. investor visas. The bill also requires the State Department to eventually ex- pand the database to include records of such denials of in- vestor visas in other countries. The State Department shall prioritize including records from European Union coun- tries and from Australia, Cana- da, New Zealand, and the Unit- ed Kingdom," the Bill reads. "The Secretary of State shall expand the database to include foreign investor visa denials. Foreign states that provide re- cords related to foreign inves- tor visa denials for inclusion in the database shall gain access to records contained therein. Priority foreign states for in- clusion in this database are the foreign states of the European Union." US lawmakers seek visa denial over golden passports Malta accused of leaving 24 in danger of death at sea