On a fundamentally moral level, there is something discordant with a government that on the one hand seeks to forcibly return irregular migrants to a place where they cannot be guaranteed any sort of protection of their most basic human rights, and which, on the other, says it is preparing to welcome with open arms people willing to pay hundreds of thousands of euros for a Maltese passport.

Back in July, the government threatened to return newly arrived sub-Saharan irregular immigrants back to an uncertain fate in Libya, where two of them had reportedly been shot while escaping from detention there and who had their wounds treated at Mater Dei upon arrival.  The government was only stopped from proceeding with its plans, through the last minute intervention of the European Court of Justice. The government later backtracked and said that it was making a point.

And now the government has published draft legislation that would grant Maltese citizenship – citizenship, not residency - to people prepared to pay €650,000 for it.  That is not to say that anyone applying for Maltese citizenship will automatically have it granted to them, the government has said that the appropriate checks and balances will be applied by a board detailed to process the requests and make sure that all the applicants’ papers are in order, although the draft legislation stipulates that those applying may not even necessarily be called in for an interview. 

The bottom line message: if you have cash you are welcome, we will give you citizenship at the right price, but the world’s most persecuted and impoverished need not apply – not even for asylum.

The government, the Prime Minister said yesterday, plans to rake in €30 million through the scheme.  This may seem like an extraordinary amount but to a government it is not.  The funds raised will go to a still undefined ‘National Development Fund’.  The Prime Minister yesterday said that the Fund would use “part” of the funds raised through this ‘Individual Investor Programme’ for social and national projects that will “help the economy” and “reduce burdens on families and business”.

While more certainly needs to be explained about this fund, in particular which “part” of the funds to be raised would go to such projects, it must also be noted that ‘helping the economy and reducing burdens of families and businesses’ are not only one of the main functions of any government but they are also among the main platforms on which this government was elected in the first place.

What also bears explaining is what the other “part” of the funds raised will go to, at the price of selling the Maltese national identity.  Political pundits are today brimming over with innuendos concerning why, exactly, the government has deemed it fit to offer the Maltese passport for sale, and to whom.

Moreover, it is strange that the Prime Minister has limited the scheme at €30 million, as though there were a limited amount of passports available or a specific number of people to be accommodated.  Why not stop at €300 million, or €3 billion?  The market for EU passports is, after all, undoubtedly limitless so why stop at just €30 million?  Given enough time and the right kind of marketing, Malta could solve its deficit and debt problems a lot quicker than anticipated.

One could argue that the funds raised through the exercise outweigh the perils of the moral precipice from which this new legislation is dangling.  Others can argue that other EU member states have similar programmes. 

According to research by The Economist, Portugal is offering a ‘Golden Residence Permit’ (residence, not citizenship) which requires an investment of €1 million in financial assets over five years, and a €500,000 investment in property or the creation of 10 jobs. Spain is debating launching a programme along similar lines.  Ireland requests an investment of €500,000, which was reduced from €1 million in July. 

Five other countries also offer actual citizenship, as Malta is proposing.  The two EU states mentioned in the article are Austria and Cyprus.  The latter was asking no less than €10 million for citizenship, a price tag that was recently reduced to €2.5 million.  Rest assured that such schemes did not go down very well with large swathes of the populations of those countries that have taken such a step.  The other countries offering citizenship for sale are St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica. 

At the asking price of €650,000 for Maltese citizenship, we appear to be quite competitive all things considered, but we are undercut by Macedonia, for example, which offers residency at just €400,000.

We should really be asking for more considering the fact that a recent study by global consultancy on residence and citizenship planning firm Henley and Partners last week found that the Maltese passport is the world’s nine-most desirable on the basis that Maltese passport holders can travel to 163 different countries without requiring a visa.

As the highly reputed Economist points out “one category of applicants [of such citizenship schemes] consists of rich people from emerging economies seeking convenience and security.  Many are Chinese, though since the Arab Spring demand is growing in the Middle East.  A second is made up of citizens of rich countries who want to disguise their origins when visiting dangerous places”.

What The Economist does not mention and what is perhaps most pertinent in Malta’s case, is the fact that a Maltese passport is also an EU passport, meaning that once someone purchases a Maltese passport they are free to settle, do business in or do just about anything else in the whole of the European Union.  The government says that it is not expecting any objections from Brussels over the plan, but that will remain to be seen.

Last, but certainly not least, is the national pride factor.  What makes a person Maltese?  Having been born in Malta, having lived in this country long enough to warrant citizenship, having family or otherwise in Malta?  Or does it just boil down to a question of cold hard cash as this proposed legislation suggests? 

Not everything in this world comes at a price, and citizenship of a country should certainly not be one of them.  Although the opposition has not yet objected to the scheme, a futile exercise at the end of the day considering the government’s sweeping parliamentary majority, there will undoubtedly be thousands of Maltese who will object to selling our citizenship. 

This is not exactly a question of selling the family silver in the form of what is left of the state-owned enterprises. Many will argue that offering Maltese citizenship at a price is tantamount to selling the national soul.