A part-time board has left 5,000 foreign workers without rights

Thousands of foreign workers are waiting up to two years for a decision on work-permit appeals, despite legal deadlines that should see cases decided within weeks.

The extended wait is forcing some into taking illegal jobs paying as little as €2 an hour and others to forego life-changing healthcare because their work permits are frozen until appeals are decided.

Up to 5,000 people are left in this limbo, unions say.

Immigration lawyers have branded the situation an “unprecedented crisis” while unions say it is an “administrative failure”. They blame the delays on a largely part-time appeals board and say initial errors or abuses from employers led to many permits being rejected in the first place.

The government insists recent reforms are starting to reduce pending cases.

Most non-EU workers, also called third-country nationals (TCNs), need a single work permit to both live and work in Malta. If an application is denied, the worker can appeal the decision through the Immigration Appeals Board (IAB), which should rule within 10 days. That can, however, be extended to a maximum of 60 days.

'I'm going blind'

One of those affected by this state of affairs had moved to Malta in January 2020 and was working legally when he was persuaded to move to another restaurant with the promise of a higher salary. However, that application was refused in September 2023 by Identità because his prospective employer did not file the required documents.

“Since then, I have been on appeal,” the man said. While he’s been waiting, he says he has been pushed into working illegally to survive and has “been cheated many times”.

He said he was asked to cook in restaurants for trial periods that lasted more than a week. “In one case, I worked for a 10-day ‘training’ period where I was fulfilling all the duties of a chef, but they then told me they would not hire me because I am on appeal. At first, they did not want to pay me, and only after insisting a lot did they give me some of what I was owed,” he said.

For him, however, the biggest issue has been his health.

The 39-year-old, a diabetic, said he has been losing vision in one eye. He had been treating the condition at Mater Dei Hospital, but, having appealed two-and-a-half years ago, he has been unable to access the national health service. 

€2 an hour

Another man said he moved to Malta to work as a barista and was left without a job for three months when he arrived. He said he was then given a job as a waiter, but was stopped by his employer again when the high tourist season ended. His application for a new job as a security guard was refused in May 2024.

“My mental health has suffered a lot since then, and I was stuck in an abusive job,” he said. He said he was given barista work for €4 per hour plus accommodation. The minimum wage in Malta is €5.70 per hour. However, he said his employer was paying him as if he were working 40 hours a week when he was actually working around 80 hours.

“I was earning €2 per hour and working non-stop. I did not have time to sleep, wash my clothes or do anything else,” he said. “When I said I was leaving, the employer threatened to report me to the authorities and kept asking me for rent for the flat I was living in, even though I was supposed to live there for free while I was working.”

Another said he moved here to work in construction, but his application was immediately refused by Identità because of an incorrect passport number listed on his application. He then found regular work in construction until he was injured in a non-work-related incident.

After recovering, he found work with another construction company. “The work is irregular, whenever they need me, and they pay me €5.50 per hour,” he said. On average, he is earning just over €600 per month, he said.

Identità is responsible for ID cards, passports, visas, residence documents, public deeds and civil status records. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Why are appeals taking so long?

Jobsplus can decide against an application for a work permit for many reasons including if it considers that the labour market does not need more workers in a particular field or if an employer has been red-flagged. Once a worker’s application is denied, the applicant has two months to either find a new job or appeal the decision at the IAB. 

The board also rules on appeals related to family reunification and visa refusals, both within Identità’s remit, and removal orders from Malta, which fall under the police

Under recently amended immigration laws, the appeals board has 10 days to decide on a case, which can be extended up to 60 days after both parties – the refused worker and Identità – file their submissions. However, legal sources who often appear before the IAB confirmed that cases are taking around two years to be decided. One major reason for this is that almost all board members work part-time, according to a lawyer close to the process.

The board consists of four divisions, and members are appointed by the home affairs minister. Each division should have a chairperson, who must be a lawyer, and two other members knowledgeable in the field. However, one of them currently has no chairperson after Maria Cardona resigned late last year. “Since then, that division is not meeting,” sources familiar with the board’s work said.

Two lawyers said Cardona was “incredibly efficient” and would hold sittings every week. Each sitting would tackle 40 or 50 cases. “But when you have a thousand cases, it’s a drop in the ocean,” one said.

Two other divisions are chaired by criminal lawyer Matthew Xuereb and Juliana Scerri Ferrante, who was elected to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2024.

One division now has a full-time member, Paula Cauchi, appointed in October. However, having served as Identità’s lawyer until recently, her division cannot hear cases related to the agency and is, therefore, tackling cases related to the police. These include detention cases, return orders and age assessments.

‘Failure’

During the General Workers’ Union congress earlier this year, outgoing hospitality secretary Kevin Abela highlighted the issue. Now the union is international, he said the situation needed to be addressed urgently.

“An important appeal to the authorities concerns the situation of workers who end up in an appeal process. This often occurs due to administrative errors or abuse by those who brought them into the country,” he said.

“During this appeal period, these workers are unable to work legally and, consequently, end up in the informal economy, where they are exploited even more than before. This is a situation that must be addressed urgently.”

Abela, who is now the GWU's international secretary, said that TCNs who have no right to remain in Malta should not stay, but “at the same time, it is unacceptable for cases to take years to be decided”. He told delegates: “According to official figures, this problem is affecting around 5,000 individuals. This constitutes an administrative failure, especially when, at the same time, we continue to bring more workers into the country.”

Speaking to Times of Malta, immigration lawyer Adrian Sciberras said the backlog in appeals had created an “unprecedented crisis”.

“Genuine applicants seeking legitimate residency opportunities face prolonged delays in receiving decisions, while those with meritless claims exploit these systemic bottlenecks to unlawfully extend their stay in the country,” he said.

Sciberras added that the government was also losing out on tax and social security contributions because of the delays.

Reforms

A government spokesperson said there had been a decline in the number of pending appeals since legal amendments establishing deadlines for divisions and setting up a new division with a full-time chairperson were introduced.

Since the entry into force of these amendments in August 2025, a measurable decline in pending appeals has been recorded, with more than half of the pending appeals having been lodged in 2025 and 2026.

“This early impact demonstrates that the reforms are yielding tangible results and confirms the effectiveness of the structural and procedural changes introduced,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that the government was committed to further improving the operations of the appeals board so that appeals are concluded in the shortest possible time frame. “To this end, work is ongoing to strengthen the board through additional resources,” the spokesperson said.