As foreign-registered, uninsured vehicles continue to stream into the country – vehicles that at one point or another could very well be involved in traffic accidents – it is Maltese motorists who may eventually end up paying the price for such vehicles’ unregulated entry into the country.

The phenomenon has been ongoing for years now, and while the fact that the owners of such vehicles, primarily from Libya, are practically untraceable when it comes to meting out tickets for traffic violations, the issue, if left unaddressed, is also bound to impact Maltese insurers’ and drivers’ bottom lines at one point or another.

According to insurance industry specialists speaking with this newspaper, the main issued lies with the growing number of Libyan-registered vehicles that make their way to Malta, via Tunisia and Italy. While there are no direct ferries from Libya to Malta at present, it is believed that such vehicles usually make their way from Libya to neighbouring Tunisia, where they are boarded onto ferries to Italy.  And from Italy it is merely another ferry trip away to Malta. 

The problem is that if such vehicles enter the country from Italy, the Maltese authorities are obliged to allow them entry into the country without asking for documentation.

The situation, according to insurance industry insiders speaking with this newspaper, is leading to abuse and not only do the authorities not request documentation for such vehicles, but they do not even take the details of such vehicles based on the fact that they entered the country from another EU state.

One insurer who spoke to The Malta Independent on Sunday explained how Maltese motorists could eventually end up forking out for this state of affairs: “The problem is that most of these vehicles are not insured and yet, being involved in accidents in Malta means that we as insurers have to settle damages, mostly injuries, from a common fund which is sponsored by local registered insurers.

“Unfortunately, the motor results in Malta are not generally good and eventually, local motorists would have to contribute further for claims emanating from foreign, uninsured vehicles being driven on our roads.  

“In many instances, these are not traceable as no one has an address or name of the owners.

“The wardens and the police officers are meant to take action following an accident to confiscate the vehicles if found to be uninsured. However, the problem remains how to secure a recovery when our clients are not to blame. These people are not traceable.”

The suspicion is that many of such vehicles could have been stolen in Libya following the turmoil in the wake of the collapse of the Gaddafi regime.

Lending credibility to the suspicion is the fact that many ‘owners’ of such vehicles are not turning up to claim the vehicles after they are impounded by the Maltese police. It is understood that the police do stop such Libyan-registered vehicles on the road to ask for proof of insurance cover. When such proof is not produced, in most cases the cars are confiscated by the police.

But strangely enough, in the majority of such cases, no one turns up to claim the vehicles.

Many in the industry argue that some form of action needs to be taken, irrespective of EU regulations to encourage freedom of movement within the bloc.