Amid a barrage of allegations of identity theft and corruption, Home Affairs Minister BYRON CAMILLERI tells Mark Laurence Zammit he is doing everything possible to curb abuse and plug holes in the many systems he is responsible for.

MLZ: People are claiming to have gone to state entities and told their ID card number wasn’t theirs. Others received mail at home addressed to people who never lived there. Or received calls from hospital mistakenly informing them serious surgeries were coming up. Then we learned people were registered as living in an empty hotel in Xlendi, and other cases of as many as 20 people registered as living in one flat. Jason Azzopardi is saying thousands of people obtained ID cards on the back of fake marriage certificates... What’s going on?

BC: Let’s take them one by one. Identità set up a compliance unit and increased checks in recent years. It went to the police whenever it suspected anyone was breaking the law and suspects were charged in court before any comment and story even made it to the media. In one case a man falsely claimed he was the partner of someone who had a residence permit. In other cases, people were found to have had fake housing contracts – and again, the state entities reported it to the police. And they didn’t stop there. 

Identità strengthened operations and implemented measures, like notarising housing contracts, to prevent future abuse of loopholes. So, it’s incorrect to say Identità permitted abuse. It was Identità that went to the police in the first place.

MLZ: So, you’re saying it’s not Identità or government officials who did wrong, but lone people who abused the system? Then how do you explain all these people coming out now? Can they all be wrong? I spoke to a man who told me two years ago police knocked on his hotel room door in the middle of the night while he was on holiday in Italy to tell him his ID card was supposedly stolen.

BC: There were several reports against people who allegedly did wrongdoing and months ago, when the cases surfaced, Identità suspended an official suspected to have committed wrongdoing and reported them to the police.

MLZ: Who’s the person? What wrongdoing?

BC: I can’t elaborate but it’s related to one of the alleged abuses we’re talking about. Unfortunately, we live in a world where some people choose to do wrong, but action was taken immediately. You also mentioned hospital and letters from Epic. Let’s not mix things up. The hospital system is independent from Identità’s system, and the health ministry has addressed those errors.

Same with Epic – they told staff to double-check. It’s easy to blame Identità for everything. You also mentioned the Italy case. I don’t know what investigations other countries do, but we have good relations with the Italian embassy in Malta and with the Italian minister and there were never concerns about any of this.

MLZ: I don’t understand how the hospital wasn’t already double-checking patients’ identities. It seems obvious to me that you should double-check. How do you explain claims of people who went to a government entity and were told their ID number is not theirs?

BC: I don’t think that’s the allegation. The issue was with foreigners’ residence permits, and I’m telling you what measures were taken against people who submitted false applications. Our job is to address every instance where people are found to have broken the law and take measures to avoid it in the future.

MLZ: Jason Azzopardi also alleged there were cocaine and sex parties. Do you know of these? Have you ever been to one?

BC: People who know me know I’m not keen about parties. The last party I’ve been to was my daughter’s first birthday party.

MLZ: Do you think parliament should investigate whether any MPs went to these alleged parties?

BC: You’re a journalist, you can ask them yourself. I can speak for myself. I am not afraid of any scrutiny, allegation, because that’s my style.

MLZ: Jason Azzopardi also made serious allegations about a LESA racket. You denied knowledge or involvement in it. Why should we believe you and not Azzopardi?

BC: Take the auditor general’s word for it. In 2021, one of his reports highlighted concerns and recommendations in this sector. In two reports in the following couple of years he clearly notes the recommendations were being largely implemented and the concerns addressed.

MLZ: And yet, serious allegations surfaced again.

BC: Anyone can make allegations whenever they want.

MLZ: Are you saying the alleged ticket cancellations were happening when the auditor flagged concerns, but they stopped happening since then? Because in that same year (2021) I published a story with similar allegations – a high LESA official cancelling hundreds of fines. What did you do about that since then?

BC: I saw that article but that was a different time. When I was appointed home affairs minister almost five years ago, police would hand out tickets with a pen and paper and word on the street was the system allowed for abuse. Everybody remembers that time. I decided to digitalise that system, which meant that as soon as the fine was handed, it was registered into the system, which means any potential abuse was curbed. You think anyone who wants to abuse would take decisions like the ones I took?

MLZ: Can you guarantee no fines are being cancelled right now?

BC: I don’t permit that and if I learn anyone is doing it, I’ll go to the police myself. But LESA and its CEO already denied those allegations and said they are prepared for any scrutiny because I have nothing to hide.

MLZ: Do you trust the people you have running LESA will not do it either? Because that’s the whole point of being the minister. It’s not enough that you’re clean – you’re also responsible to make sure corruption doesn’t happen on your watch.

BC: People who have something to hide don’t say they are open to scrutiny. And that’s what LESA did.

MLZ: Can you guarantee there are no other alleged rackets happening under your nose that we’re going to learn about soon?

BC: Nobody can give that guarantee. There are thousands of employees working in what is one of the biggest ministries. I can promise you one thing – whenever there were alleged abuses the system stopped them and reported them. That’s what always happened and will continue to happen.

MLZ: I often notice that government institutions avoid telling people that they found abuse within their structures. Even when the entity itself reports abuse to the police, it’s done hush-hush, and people only get to know about the abuse if the media or people like Jason Azzopardi make an issue out of it. Don’t you think people have a right to know, that Identità should tell us when it goes to the police over suspected internal wrongdoing? And the same with LESA. It’s not enough to implement measures to plug loopholes – you must also be transparent with the public about what wrongdoing led to that action in the first place.

BC: Let’s say, for the sake of the argument, the authorities suspect you were doing something wrong. Do you think justice is best served if the authorities go public with its suspicion about you? Or would it be better if they go to the police and allow for investigations that might lead to your prosecution in court? Justice is ultimately done in court, at which point the media is also free to report to the public.

MLZ: What about cases that don’t make it to court? Don’t you think we should know what happened? A case in point is the inquiries into the deaths of 13 inmates found dead in prison during Alex Dalli’s tenure. Don’t you think we should know how they died, even if there was no foul play?

BC: When we had questions from journalists, we always answered them. Anyone who asked was given all the information.

MLZ: After all the allegations that surfaced in the past weeks, why didn’t you resign?

BC: I am open to all scrutiny. The allegations are not about me personally and I was very clear in my response. That’s why I’m sitting here before you and answering your questions, and I am likewise open to all other scrutiny. I always stood firm in front of wrongdoing, that’s all I can tell you.

MLZ: But let’s be honest – had these same allegations surfaced under a PN government you would be calling for the minister’s resignation right now. That’s what Labour did all the time up to 2013. Why is it different this time?

BC: And seldom did we see resignations at that time, even over worse things. I am open to all scrutiny, and I have nothing to hide.

MLZ: Foreign workers. Have we lost control?

BC: Since the sector was transferred to my portfolio in March, we have been working on a revised labour migration policy. For now, I can tell you it will be based on four principles and it will be soon launched for consultation. It will be a policy in favour of workers, stability and retention, worker upskilling and reskilling and a skills-based approach to identify where more workers are needed and where there are enough. Some sectors – like healthcare – need more workers but other sectors – like cabs and food delivery service – have enough.

MLZ: But if enough people want to take cabs, why stop more drivers coming in? Isn’t it an issue of demand and supply? And if you’re stopping cab drivers because there are too many cabs, why aren’t you also stopping construction workers coming in? We also have too many flats, no? Why are you not employing the same principle? Will the cab and courier companies be made the sacrificial lamb?

BC: We have a duty to run market testing...

MLZ: Can we see that survey? Can you give it to me or tell me what’s in it? Because nobody has seen it yet.

BC: We run market tests to see whether each sector needs more or fewer workers.

MLZ: What about construction? Isn’t that also saturated? Even parliament is saturated...

BC: I love parliament work and have strong opinions about it, and I do believe there are too many MPs, but I did agree with the gender quota mechanism. That’s a discussion for another day though.

MLZ: OK, so what about construction? Because you only speak about healthcare, which sounds nice, but what about construction?

BC: We will soon be publishing our policies. For now, I’m sharing our principles with you.

MLZ: But what does the labour market survey say about construction? You know what it says about healthcare, cabs and couriers, so you must also know what it says about construction. Or is that the sacred cow that mustn’t be touched?

BC: We think we should introduce mechanisms there – like the skills card in the tourism industry – for every worker.

MLZ: We haven’t had a migrant boat arrive at our shores in a long time. What deal have you struck with Libya? Or is Libya safe now and migrants don’t need to leave anymore?

BC: It’s not like that. I’m not happy with people dying at sea and that’s why we take decisions to reduce crossings and curb human trafficking.

MLZ: But are you OK with people dying in Libya?

BC: No, let me explain. Crossings have decreased drastically due to our collaboration with Libya against human trafficking. But the central Mediterranean route is also not as active as it was up till a few years ago and there have been fewer boat departures as well. Why should we encourage people to come to Malta illegally? Why don’t we encourage them to do it legally? We already offered that to many people who came to work and live here regularly.

MLZ: A community of Ethiopians who have been living and working in Malta for a long time are facing deportation. Why do you deport these people? Isn’t their situation exactly like that of other TCNs who come to work here? They all want a better life for themselves and their families. It’s just that TCNs afforded to buy a plane ticket and the others didn’t?

BC: If you’re a refugee, fleeing war or other similar circumstances, we have a duty to help you. But if you’re not, the law says you must return to your country. I understand that people who have risked their lives to make the dangerous crossing are not keen on returning to their country, but there is a bigger picture we must look at. We can’t send messages that coming to Malta illegally will eventually grant you legal rights just the same, because it would be encouraging more people to go to the traffickers and make the dangerous crossing, and I’m not comfortable creating policies that lead to people dying at sea.

MLZ: Is Malta safer today than it was 10 years ago?

BC: That’s what the statistics show. But crime is shifting from a physical environment to a digital one.

MLZ: But is the country safer overall?

BC: Crime rates per thousand people have reduced, yes.

MLZ: Then why don’t people feel it? Is it just a perception? Or is it because social media creates more hype about incidents?

BC: Social media plays a part, yes, and others try to scaremonger and present a false picture of the situation. But there are also fewer reports of certain crimes, like thefts, and increasing reports of other crimes.

MLZ: When Bernice Cassar was murdered there was an inquiry which found holes in the system. You subsequently implemented several measures to plug those holes. But then Nicolette Ghirxi was murdered, and we realised there were actually other holes we hadn’t seen. When are we going to plug all the holes?

BC: Firstly, I must send my condolences to the families of both victims. I hope I’m not misinterpreted when I say this, but is there any society that has managed to get these cases down to zero? No matter how hard we work in this sector, it will never be enough to avoid every murder, but we must keep working to stop as many domestic violence cases as we possibly can.

MLZ: If it were not for Adrian Delia and Repubblika, the Vitals deal wouldn’t have been stopped. Don’t you think it was the police that should have investigated the case in the first place?

BC: I am not privy to police investigations, but I saw the police commissioner address this, and he said they acted on the report of the magisterial inquiry and are now assisting the prosecution in court.

MLZ: But you do realise that if it were not for Delia and Repubblika, the deal wouldn’t have been stopped, right?

BC: I’m no prophet...

MLZ: It’s evident, because the state institutions did nothing to stop it. The police should have investigated the deal from the first whiff of corruption.

BC: As a minister I’m not part and will not be part of police investigations. I don’t know what the police were doing but I can see what the police did following the release of the magisterial inquiry.

MLZ: Similarly, don’t you think the police should be investigating who owns (secret Panama company) Egrant?

BC: Wasn’t there already an investigation into that?

MLZ: No. There was an investigation that found it doesn’t belong to Joseph Muscat, but there was no investigation into who owns it. Don’t you think the police should find out who owns it?

BC: I think everything should be investigated, always.

MLZ: Even Egrant’s owner?

BC: Don’t put words in my mouth.

MLZ: I asked you specifically about Egrant and you said “everything”. Does that include Egrant?

BC: Everything. We often only mention cases related to the Labour government.

MLZ: Whenever they want, police may arraign officials from former PN administrations as well. So far, only Giovanna Debono’s husband was taken to court and he was acquitted... twice. Now I’m asking you about Egrant. Do you think police should find out who owns Egrant?

BC: An allegation into Egrant has already been investigated and it turned out it was not true. My approach is – wherever there’s doubt, it should be investigated.