The suspension of Schengen rules, which was put in place as a precaution before the Valletta Summit on Migration and CHOGM, has now been lifted.

Systems have returned to normal, a Home Affairs Ministry statement read, adding that the temporary border controls at the Malta International Airport and the Passenger Terminal in Valletta have now stopped.

In recent days, the international community kept alert during the end of year celebrations, however no threat was made against Malta, the statement read, "thus the Schengen rules are now back in place".

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that the treaty was suspended as a precaution. "When we suspended it, we met with situations that led us not to accept people entering the country. We realised that there were people who instead of coming to Malta by boat, go to Italy, buy a false Austrian passport, purchase a low-cost ticket and come over to apply for asylum and look for a job when they should have done so in their first European country they set foot upon. If we had not suspended Schengen, this racket would not have been caught".