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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 AUGUST 2024 Byron Camilleri's silence is deafening Editorial IDENTITÀ is the government agency respon- sible for citizens' identity management and the regulation of migration processes. In its 'About' page on its website, Identità says it 'aims to achieve the highest level of service ex- cellence without compromising security'. We are in no position to determine whether these aims have been achieved but the slowly unfolding scandal involving fake residential ad- dresses supplied by foreigners certainly points to a big security weakness. Nationalist MP Albert Buttigieg published on social media several letters with his house ad- dress on them but addressed to people with In- dian names who do not and have never resided in his property. The letters in this case are from a mobile phone company. Evidently, the person who had procured the services of the mobile phone company must have supplied them with a fake identity card that had Buttigieg's house address. Buttigieg is not the only person to have received such mail from companies that would ordinari- ly require an identity document to enter into a contractual agreement with a prospective client. Buttigieg's predicament appears to be the tail end of what lawyer Jason Azzopardi has been labelling as a massive scandal involving some 18,000 fake ID cards created with the help of Identità officials. If what Azzopardi is claim- ing is true, the country's security has truly been compromised. Now, there is no love lost between Azzopardi and MaltaToday. The lawyer has a habit of mak- ing outlandish comments and creating moun- tains out of molehills. But it would be a grave mistake if the minister responsible for Identità – Byron Camilleri – simply ignores the claims, even more when other individuals are coming forward with letters received at home and ad- dressed to people they do not know and who never resided in their property. At the very least, Camilleri has a duty to ex- plain what is happening and what he plans to do about it. While calling for Camilleri's resigna- tion at this stage may be premature, his contin- ued silence is deafening. His silence is even more problematic when one considers that a magistrate recently asked the police to investigate two Identità officials who were testifying in an immigration case against an Egyptian national and who gave conflicting versions under oath. It is a serious problem if foreigners are using fake ID cards to go about their business in Malta; and worse, if they are using legitimately issued ID cards, which however contain false informa- tion. The implications of the latter scenario are very serious because banks, financial institutions and companies entering into some form of con- tractual obligation with these people need to have the peace of mind that the persons who are in front of them are who the official documents claim they are. One would assume that Identità would have done its homework well before pro- cessing and issuing an ID card to a foreign indi- vidual. In many ways, it is the first form of due diligence that companies and institutions will be banking on. At first glance the issue flagged by Buttigieg does not seem to be an isolated case but a wide- spread practice – other individuals have since come forward reporting similar incidents. If it is part of an even wider criminal rack- et that has bought the silence of politicians on both sides of the House, police officers and other public officials, as alleged by Azzopardi, it is sig- nificantly worse. If Identità officials are or were at the heart of any wrongdoing, it becomes a serious problem of national security. A scandal of such propor- tions is a resignation matter. This is why a thorough police investigation is required to determine if the abuse is being per- petrated by Identità officials and if so, what the extent of the abuse is. If Identità is not involved but somebody else is producing fake ID cards, the culprits should be caught and prosecuted ac- cordingly. If any public official was aware of this scandal but turned a blind eye they are equally guilty. Whatever the case may be, Camilleri cannot re- main with his mouth shut. If there is a scandal of epic proportions at Identità as is being alleged, Malta's national security is being compromised every passing day. Quote of the Week "I have no more comments to make on the issue. I've said all I have to say." Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo when asked by journalists whether he returned a 19th century British-era stone marker in his possession to the heritage authorities. MaltaToday 10 years ago 10 August 2014 IIP citizens bring in €130 million APPLICATIONS for Maltese citizenship un- der the Individual Investor Programme num- ber over 200 and most of the applications do not face any serious objection, MaltaToday has learned. The applicants are mostly Russian, but applications hail from over 70 countries. All applicants made the relevant deposits and in some cases the agents, which include many leading Maltese legal firms, have al- ready been paid a €70,000 fee upfront. With most of the applicants believed to be headed for Maltese citizenship, it would mean that the government would have raked in at least €130 million, which is €100 million more than estimated by Prime Minister Jo- seph Muscat for the first year alone. Legal firms could theoretically and cumu- latively have earned €14 million. It is unclear how much Henley and Partners, the IIP's concessionaires, will be making for each citi- zen accepted. Government sources were tight-lipped on further details apart from saying that they were overwhelmed by the interest in the scheme. Investors who make a minimum contri- bution of €650,000 (plus €25,000 each for any spouse or minor child) will be granted Maltese citizenship, provided they meet due diligence criteria and pass a criminal back- ground check. Apart from having had to purchase a property worth at least €350,000, or to rent a property for €16,000 a month, the third re- quirement – purchasing €150,000 in financial instruments – would mean a cumulative impact of €30 million in such investments. The new citizens' Maltese passport will give them full voting rights on the island and free access to the border-Schengen area inside the EU.