37,881 Schengen visa applications to visit Malta in 2017 – Russians and Chinese get the most

Official 2017 statistics on Schengen visa applications at Malta’s consulates around the globe, published by SchengenVisaInfo.com and made available to this newspaper, have shown that 37,881 Schengen visa applications for Malta were made last year.

From a total number of 16,155,613 of worldwide applica- tions for Schengen visas, an impressive number of 37,881 were filed at 21 Maltese consulates around the world.

The number is large because while the number of Maltese Schengen visas applied for may only account for 0.23 per cent of all the Schengen visas last year, Malta’s population accounts for just 0.09 per cent of the EU population and 0.11 per cent of the Schengen zone’s population – effectively meaning that Malta issued close to double the amount of visas in proportion to its population of the zone.

This may not be the correct yardstick, but the figure certainly adds to mounting concerns in Europe about the ways in which Malta issues its Schengen visas, which allow visitors free access to most of the bloc.

Russians were the largest group of Schengen visa applicants at Maltese consulates. As the statistics show in 2017, 9,161 Russians submitted Schengen visa applications in Malta’s consulate in Moscow. Among the Russian applicants, 98 per cent of them received a positive response and were granted a Schengen visa.

During the same timeframe, 1,049 Russians were granted multiple entry visas (MEV), amounting to 11.7 per cent of the total uniform visas issued. As for the rejection rate, a small percentage of 1.2 per cent (110) of the applicants was not awarded a Schengen visa.

The second largest group of applicants granted a Schengen visa to Malta in 2017 were the Chinese. Out of 8,217 uniform visa applicants in China, 5,440 received a visa. The MEVs issued accounted for 10.8 per cent of the total issuance. In contrast to Russian applications, the number of uniform visa applications rejected in Beijing was significantly higher, at 2,682 or 32.6 per cent of total applications.

Algerians, meanwhile, were also among some of the largest groups of applicants for a Schengen visa at Malta’s consulates, after Russia and China. But despite being ranked third for the number of applications submitted, the rate of acceptance was significantly low.

Just 545 Schengen visa applications out of the total 5,029 were granted a visa by the Maltese consulate in Algiers. On the other hand, this means that 4,615 or 91.8 per cent of the applicants were rejected. The figure is now far higher than the 50 per cent rejection rate mentioned by the Prime Minister back in 2015.

In 2017, the European Council urged Malta to ensure that when its consulate grants visas to Algerians, those receiving visas, which are in effect also visas to the whole Schengen Zone, they have an actual will to return home, and that they will not disappear into the wider European Union.

Following an assessment on the operations of Malta’s Consulate and visa section in Algiers, the Council recommended that Malta: “ensure[s] that applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis, with particular attention paid to the applicant’s will to return as evidenced by their individual socio-economic situation in the country of residence”.

The Council also urged Malta to carry out more in-depth investigations of first-time applicants at the Algiers Consulate. It also recommended that Malta “fully applies the provisions on issuing multipleentry visas, including visas with long validity as provided for in Article 24(2) of the Visa Code, to bona fide applicants who have proven their reliability and integrity, while continuing to carry out more indepth investigations of first-time applicants”.

Accusations of irregularities with the issuance of visas from the Maltese Consulate in Algiers had been a major bone of contention after Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami had raised concerns in Parliament over a seemingly inordinate number of Schengen visas for Algerians being issued by Malta, many of whom, it was alleged, were not staying in Malta and were travelling on and vanishing into other Schengen states.

It transpired that 7,000 Schengen visas had been issued to Algerian nationals over the span of 18 months in 2014 and 2015.

The European Commission, however, had dismissed claims that there was anything wrong with the issuing of thousands of Schengen visas for Algerian nationals from Malta’s Consulate in Algiers in the timeframe.

Austrian EU Presidency to crack down on Schengen security

Austria, which assumed the EU Presidency this week, has pledged to protect the Schengen zone at all costs, with hard-line Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz setting the Presidency’s main priority over the next six months to protect the external borders of the Schengen Area.

In his inaugural speech, he said that another priority of the Austrian EU Presidency would be tackling illegal immigration, and focusing more on the safeguarding of Schengen external borders as a prerequisite for a common borderfree Europe.

Throughout his 25-minute-long speech, Kurz insisted that migration is for now a top concern for Europeans, though many of the EU Council Members disagreed with him.

At the event, Slovak MEP Branislav Skripek took the floor to highlight the situation with Malta to Kurz, saying: “I appreciate that Austria has chosen as one of its priorities security and illegal migration but I have a question to pose: what would you say if I told you that a member state issued 300 visas every day, including Sundays. How would you react if the standard 14 days to issue a visa was reduced to just one and a half days?

“This is not a joke; this is a current condition of Schengen security, which is supposed to be safe for all EU citizens.

“The Maltese authorities have allegedly issued and sold 88,000 Schengen visas to Libyan nationals, and another number of medical visas. The Maltese authorities have refused to investigate this scandal and the Commission, otherwise active when it comes to the rule of law turns a blind eye.

“Members who so blatantly break the basic rule of common security must be temporarily suspended and the case thoroughly investigated, I insist.

“I call upon the Presidency to stop this madness and make the Schengen zone safe.”

Skripek is also leading a letter being signed by a growing number of MEPs labelling Malta as “incapable of being a trustworthy Schengen member in current circumstances”.

Pressure is mounting on Malta to clean up its Schengen act with a new group of MEPs calling for Malta to be suspended from the zone.

In a letter sent to European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos, a cross-party group of 28 MEPs are demanding Malta is investigated over the alleged illicit sale of medical and Schengen visas.

The letter, addressed to Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans and Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos, notes “…the growing pile of evidence demonstrating the illicit sale of Schengen and medical visas in Malta. These visas have been sold without any proper controls to people residing in Libya.

“The evidence so far points to the very likelihood of involvement of civil servants at the highest level of the Maltese government. It is well known that ISIS is present in Libya. The illicit sale of Schengen and medical visas is not only a grave offence against the Schengen Treaty; it is also a security threat against the EU given the sheer scale of the scheme.

“We emphasize that the evidence presented by Ivan Grech Mintoff [in court] is not the only evidence pointing to this scheme.

“It is the most detailed evidence so far, but The Malta Independent had reported twice about this scheme in 2016. The Maltese government had not responded to these reports. The Libyans who came forward at that time to testify on this matter were not questioned by the police.

“The only response to these reports has been that a high-ranking official in the Maltese Prime Minister’s office has started two libel cases against The Malta Independent.

“Mr Grech Mintoff delivered his evidence to the court in the framework of these libel cases demonstrating that The Malta Independent did not break the law but reported the facts truthfully. A serious part of Mr Mintoff’s evidence consists of reported conversations with the aforementioned Libyans who wanted to testify.

“In the light of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the LIBE Committee has already created a Working Group lead by Ana Gomes MEP and Sven Giegold to investigate this situation. Their findings have been published and are crystal clear that the rule of law is under serious pressure in Malta and that Malta is incapable of being a trustworthy Schengen member in current circumstances.

“We underscore the findings of Mrs Gomes and Mr Giegold and thank them for their work.

The letter asks the Commissioners whether they will take any further steps against alleged Maltese illicit business with Schengen visas; and to prove that the same standard of security applies to all Schengen area members.

They also state, “In the light of this report, the evidence presented by The Malta Independent and Mr Mintoff and given the mentioned regulation, we urge the Commission to start an investigation and evaluation (including on-site visit according to Article 10 of the regulation). We expect that this evaluation will include conversations with witnesses and any other person who will be able to share valuable information with the Commission.

“We suggest that the visit will include representatives of Europol (Article 10.6). We urge the Commission to find a mechanism that will ensure the safety of all those who are willing to share valuable information on the case.

“We also expect that the Commission will conduct an internal investigation which will investigate why there has been no action from the Commission in this matter regardless of the clear public signals.

“Without a formal evaluation and full application of the relevant instruments of the regulation, it will not be possible to close this security breach caused by the lack of action from the Maltese government.

“We take it for granted that the Commission takes the security of the EU as a very serious priority and therefore we look forward to the next steps from the Commission on this matter.”