A total of 573 people have applied to acquire Maltese citizenship through the government's Individual Investor Programme, of whom nearly two thirds hail from Russia and the former Soviet Union, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said today.
Mr Abela said that the 573 had applied to acquire Maltese residency in preparation to be granted citizenship under the IIP in reply to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Claudio Grech, the shadow minister for health.
In reply to supplementary questions by PN MPs Jason Azzopardi and Robert Arrigo, Mr Abela said that he was not in a position to state how many applications have been successful so far.
Mr Abela was also asked to specify the applicants' countries of origin, although he only provided a breakdown according to regions, rather than countries.
He said that 65% hailed from Russia and other countries which were part of the Soviet Union, while nearly 19% hailed from Middle Eastern countries and nearly 13% hailed from other Asian countries.
7% of applicants hailed from Africa, slightly more than 3% from North America, around 1% from EU/EFTA countries and slightly less from South America.
Mr Grech also asked Mr Abela why so many Russians and people from ex-Soviet states were seeking Maltese citizenship, but the minister could only mention somewhat generic reasons, such as applicants wanting to invest in the country and wanting to develop ties in the country.
Pressed further, the minister emphasised that whatever their reasons for seeking Maltese citizenship, applications had to go through a very rigorous scrutiny on multiple levels.
"We are not ready to accept everyone," Mr Abela said.
In reply to another parliamentary question by Mr Grech on the topic, Mr Abela said that 81 of these 573 applicants already had more than one nationality.