Most Algerians seeking visas from Malta’s consulate in Algeria had “ulterior motives” for travelling to Malta, according to a report tabled in Parliament.
Reporting on the consulate’s work in Algeria last year, the consulate said few Algerians had the resources to travel to Europe. According to the consulate’s report, visa applications from Algiers dropped by 27 per cent in 2019, to 2,710.
The consulate said 393 visas were issued in 2019, 361 of which were Schengen visas for tourism, studying and business purposes, and 32 were Maltese visas for work and study purposes.
This report by the consulate comes after a National Audit Office probe published last year found a “less than optimal” vetting system in place when an alleged Schengen visa racket used to operate outside the consulate’s doors in 2014 and 2015.
Whistleblower Alex Fezouine, a former Air Malta sales agent for Algeria, told Times of Malta last year that the flights Air Malta used to operate to Algiers would often have a 90 per cent no-show rate on the return leg from Malta.
The high no-show rates indicated many Algerians were using a ‘holiday’ to Malta as a stepping stone for migrating to Europe. The NAO’s probe discovered that 5,083 people flew in from Algeria between March 2014 and September 2015.
During the same period, only 2,664 people departed from Malta to Algeria. This means arrivals from Algeria outstripped departures from Malta by almost 50 per cent.
Mr Fezouine had insisted the racket operated with the complicity of people working in Malta’s consulate.
He says the police told him that he had not given them any proof of this racket.
“What were they expecting, a receipt from those operating the racket? All the police had to do was observe the passengers getting off the incoming flight from Algeria. They would scramble to the Air Malta desk upon landing to book themselves on the next flight to Paris,” he said.
Those operating the racket charged €4,000-€8,000 to provide visa applicants with proof of employment, pay slips, bank account and social security details, Mr Fezouine added.
The applicants would then be hustled off to a company housed in the same building as the consulate and contracted to process the visa applications.