A man suspected of selling false passports and residence permits for travel to and from Malta, was remanded in custody following his arraignment on Thursday.

Mohamed Said Ahmed, a 32-year old Somali national, was escorted to court after he had been arrested by Immigration police who carried out a search at his home at Marsascala.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, police said that several false documents as well as originals had been discovered during the raid, leading to suspicion of the man’s involvement in the sales of the fake documents.

The accused pleaded not guilty and was remanded in custody by the court, presided over by magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech.

No request for bail was made at the arraignment.

Last month, during the arraignment of two migrants who admitted to trying to leave the country by making use of false passports, prosecuting Inspector Frankie Sammut had called for stiffer penalties.

The inspector had pointed out that police had come across some 120 such cases throughout the previous month, adding that the applicable minimum 6-month jail term was apparently not producing a sufficiently deterring effect.

On the other hand, legal aid lawyer Francina Abela had argued that someone was enriching himself at the expense of such migrants who forked out substantial payments to obtain travel documents, later ending up in hot water when the documents turned out to be fake