Media stories exposing the manner the passport sales' scheme is administered showed Malta is no longer considered a serious country that can properly administer such schemes, the Nationalist Party said on Thursday.
It was reacting to a number of stories that revealed how applicants for Maltese passports circumvent legal requirements, often abetted by government officials.
The Nationalist Party said the revelations confirmed Prime Minister Robert Abela's 'anything goes' attitude.
The stories showed how passports were being sold to people who had no connection to the country and confirmed the long-held view that basic requirements such as residency and presence in the country were not being observed.
“Our reputation has been dirtied, and we are no longer considered a serious country that can properly administer such schemes,” the PN said.
It also pointed fingers at former prime minister Joseph Muscat, arguing that the stories confirmed his direct involvement as well as that of other high-profile government figures.
“Robert Abela cannot avoid shouldering responsibility for all of this, given that all this occurred before his own eyes when he was a consultant in Castille,” the party said.
“This is a sector that, if administrated properly can actually be beneficial for the country. However, like in many other sectors, the bad is getting lumped with the good, and everyone is suffering,” the PN concluded.
'Government participated in a lie'
Meanwhile, rule-of-law NGO Repubblika said the media reports confirmed that the sale of passports was built on fraud.
The NGO observed that the reports showed how applicants for a Maltese passport did not live in Malta for a year, as they were supposed to do. And to make matters worse, not only did the government close both eyes, but it actively participated in this lie.
Furthermore, the administration of the scheme was reliant on an unacceptable level of ministerial discretion, with the regulator himself closing an eye to this obscenity. It had even been revealed that the government had exercised discretion that was beyond what was allowed at law, by hiding the name of a new passport holder, when the name should have appeared in the Government Gazette.
Repubblika observed that Malta's passports scheme also assisted the applicants to break the law of their own countries, when such countries did not allow their people to hold dual citizenship. This placed Malta in a situation of diplomatic conflict and betrayed confidence in the country.
The NGO said it would shortly publish a detailed document on citizenship policy while calling for the current scheme for the sale of passports to be abolished.
Former Alternattiva Demokratika chairman and now independent candidate Arnold Cassola has also written to the police commissioner asking him to investigate former Identity Malta director Jonathan Cardona.