The PN is calling for Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri to resign amid the “chaos” his minister is facing following the uncovering of an ID card “racket” by former PN MP Jason Azzopardi.
Last week Azzopardi filed a lengthy court application calling for an urgent magisterial inquiry into what appears to be a large-scale identity fraud racket.
He has claimed that some 18,000 Maltese ID cards were issued on the back of documents falsified by Identita officials.
Separately, the lawyer has also brought to light cases of people who fear their property is being used to commit fraud, after receiving bills from telephone companies addressed to people that have never lived there.
In a press conference on Thursday, shadow ministers Darren Carabott and Ivan Castillo said that it is increasingly clear that there are “huge problems” at state agency Identita and that the “chaos” at the heart of Camilleri’s ministry is finally coming to the fore.
They said that Camilleri is no longer good in the role that he occupies and should resign.
Despite these issues going public, Camilleri has remained silent, they said, barely reacting to Azzopardi’s request for an inquiry into the alleged racket.
“The people need a government with a backbone but instead they only get absolute silence,” they said, adding that Camilleri has also failed to speak about other issues, such as the extension of police commissioner Angelo Gafa’s term as well as the death of a person within the forensic unit at Mount Carmel Hospital while in state custody.
Silence, they continued, appears to be symptomatic within the government, as the administration has also failed to reply to the PN’s request for the labour market research to be published.
“Robert Abela and Clyde Caruana flooded our country with cheap labour and whom they now say they no longer need,” they said.
They also recalled that Camilleri’s answer, when asked by David Agius how many people worked as food couriers, was that there is presently no such category for such workers.
“In light of this, the PN must ask how can we know for sure that the market is saturated if we have no information on how many people actually work in the industry?” they said.