A New Kind Of Migration Phenomena: 395 People Found Using False Passports In Malta Since 2013
There have been 395 cases of persons using false passports in Malta since 2013, parliamentary figures have revealed.
The phenomena was believed to be relatively new, only being highlighted as a major issue between 2015 and 2018, when Italy and Malta held an agreement whereby all migrants saved in their SAR areas would go to Italian ports.
This was clearly apparent when Magistrate Rachel Montebello decried the “rampant” passport abuse in the country last month.
In fact, Malta, despite having practically no boat arrivals since 2015, has the third highest number of first-time asylum applications relative to its size, registering 2,035 first-time applicants, up from the 1,610 recorded in 2017.
However, figures do show a relatively consistent pattern, with cases reaching over 50 in five of the last six years. The largest number of cases was recorded in 2015, unsurprisingly so given that it was the peak of the migrant crisis following wide spread unrest across the middle east.
The illicit use of other people’s passports does present different, however, worrying patterns. The ages of people caught in such cases, for example, have been as young as 2, with nine cases involving minors.
Men are the overwhelming majority of people caught using incorrect passports accounting for just under 85% of all cases. Meanwhile, most of the cases involve persons from either Africa or the Middle East.
On the issue, a recent report by the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) flagged concerns raised about the criminalisation of the use of false documentation by asylum-seekers in their attempt to enter Malta.
Of the 81 charged with using someone else’s passport, 53 people were given suspended sentences, three people were handed a conditional discharge, and 22 people were sentenced to prison for a duration between one and six months.
When it came to the use of fake passports, the parliamentary question only said that of the 395 cases, only four were found not guilty, while 12 were still pending. The sentences issued vary from conditional discharge to effective imprisonment.
It should ultimately noted that the figures do not reflect the whole story. The Schengen Agreement, beyond increasing the sharing of information between countries, also creates a single external border which makes travel by asylum seekers or irregular economic migrants harder to stop. This is especially true given that the three-month visitors visa asylum seekers are allowed to acquire is not always obeyed.
In fact, one woman who was caught using false documents in 2017, had informed a court that she had entered and exited Malta a number of times using her fake ID.
Another man, aged 17, had told the court that he had travelled to Barcelona from Milan using his false documents, before being caught in Malta.
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