Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/576901
MAtthew VellA A shuttered bar on Marsa Road, in Mar- sa, is hosting 26 foreign nationals who submitted the derelict watering hole's address as proof of their residence in Malta. But outside the First and Last Bar, the signs clearly show that nobody lives here: the place is on sale. And yet, images obtained by Malta- Today show that over two-dozen people have been allowed to claim this place as their address to obtain an identity card. The names of these people were all reg- istered under 1, Marsa Road, Marsa and yet no checks are apparently made by the identity card offices to confirm the ve- racity of these claims. With a police investigation into the op- erations of Identity Malta having shed light on a racket into the issuance of resi- dence permits for foreign nationals, the information received by MaltaToday il- lustrates the ease with which people ap- plying for an ID card in Malta can claim some form of 'residence'. The names seen by this newspaper in- cluded nationalities from the Horn of Africa, Sudan, Nigeria, and also Canada, all retrieved from a search that listed the Marsa address. The 'false' address is redolent of com- plaints made in 2014 in the House of Representatives by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, of people learning that their address was being used for the registra- tion of other foreign nationals. YOUR FIRST READ AND FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY www.mALTATODAY.COm.mT maltatoday SUNDAY • 27 September 2015 • iSSue 829 • publiShed every wedneSday and Sunday 'You won't stop people from moving. You can close the Hungarian border, but you can't close blue borders.' 15 14 PAGE 3 INTERVIEWED Maria Pisani No more ferrying children to school €1.40 10 Is free bus transport for kids the key to reducing rush hour traffic? The kids are alright! Newspaper post The promosing future of Sara Ezabe and Naomi Bugre 12 Flight of the Red Arrows PAGE 13 Shuttered Marsa bar is residence address for 26 foreign nationals Marsa address has been used to register two dozen e-residence cards without any checks by national identity authorities PHOTO CHRIS MANGION