Updated 1.55pm - Added Julia Farrugia Portelli reaction 

Nigel Farage has asked “how many ISIS supporters” were among Libyans to have received Schengen visas through an alleged Maltese racket.

In a tweet on Friday, the controversial MEP and chief Brexit campaigner wrote “Outrageous that the Maltese are selling EU visas in Libya. How many ISIS supporters are among that number?”

Mr Farage wrote the tweet as a comment attached to an article in a Slovak news portal, which cited a Slovak MEP’s mention of allegations concerning Maltese visas in Libya.

Allegations about a purported visa racket involving OPM official Neville Gafà were given a new lease of life this week by Alleanza Bidla leader Ivan Grech Mintoff, who submitted a dossier detailing the claims to court.

The dossier includes transcripts of conversations with Libyans who allege that Mr Gafà sought hefty payments in exchange for visas.

“If the allegations are correct, then corrupt officials have issued up to 88,000 Schengen Visas and an unknown number of Medical Visas, permitting an inflow in to the European Union of persons that could be potential security threats and/or illegal migrants,” Mr Grech Mintoff’s dossier reads.

That concern is front-and-centre of Mr Farage’s thinking, with the UK politician having taken the visa racket allegations as fact and asking about their terror-related repercussions on Twitter. 

His tweet drew a mixed reaction, with some decrying Malta as corrupt and others replying by noting that lead Brexiteers who had bankrolled Mr Farage's Leave campaign had bought themselves a Maltese passport

Parliamentary secretary for citizenship Julia Farrugia Portelli replied to Mr Farage by posting a graph showing that Malta had the EU's highest visa rejection rate - 25.23 per cent. The next-highest rejection rate is Belgium's, at 16.01 per cent. 

"The number of visas is actually much, much less than you quoted. In reality Malta has a stringent process in place to deal with applications," she wrote.  

This is not the first time concerns have been raised about Malta serving as a backdoor entry into Europe for unsavoury elements. The country's cash-for-passports scheme has also faced similar criticism, though the government has argued that the Individual Investor Programme's due diligence processes are among the world's most stringent. 

Mr Farage's ISIS-related question is bound to strike a chord with European citizens, who continue to regard the fight against terrorism and European security to be a key threat to the region.

A Eurobarometer survey released in May found that half of all EU citizens want the fight against terrorism to be the key topic discussed by prospective MEP candidates in the run-up to the 2019 European Parliament elections.

Mr Farage will not be taking part in those elections, with the South East England MEP having successfully campaigned for Britain to leave the EU - a process that must be completed by March 2019. 

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