Official 2017 statistics on Schengen visa applications at Malta’s consulates around the globe, published by SchengenVisaInfo.com and made available to this newspaper, have shown that 37,881 Schengen visa applications for Malta were made last year.

From a total number of 16,155,613 of worldwide applications for Schengen visas, an impressive number of 37,881 were filed at 21 Maltese consulates around the world.

The number is large because while the number of Maltese Schengen visas applied for may only account for 0.23 per cent of all the Schengen visas last year, Malta’s population accounts for just 0.09 per cent of the EU population and 0.11 per cent of the Schengen zone’s population – effectively meaning that Malta issued close to double the amount of visas in proportion to its population of the zone.

This may not be the correct yardstick, but the figure certainly adds to mounting concerns in Europe about the ways in which Malta issues its Schengen visas, which allow visitors free access to most of the bloc.

Russians were the largest group of Schengen visa applicants at Maltese consulates. As the statistics show in 2017, 9,161 Russians submitted Schengen visa applications in Malta’s consulate in Moscow. Among the Russian applicants, 98 per cent of them received a positive response and were granted a Schengen visa.

During the same timeframe, 1,049 Russians were granted multiple entry visas (MEV), amounting to 11.7 per cent of the total uniform visas issued. As for the rejection rate, a small percentage of 1.2 per cent (110) of the applicants was not awarded a Schengen visa.

The second largest group of applicants granted a Schengen visa to Malta in 2017 were the Chinese. Out of 8,217 uniform visa applicants in China, 5,440 received a visa. The MEVs issued accounted for 10.8 per cent of the total issuance. In contrast to Russian applications, the number of uniform visa applications rejected in Beijing was significantly higher, at 2,682 or 32.6 per cent of total applications.

Algerians, meanwhile, were also among some of the largest groups of applicants for a Schengen visa at Malta’s consulates, after Russia and China. But despite being ranked third for the number of applications submitted, the rate of acceptance was significantly low.

Just 545 Schengen visa applications out of the total 5,029 were granted a visa by the Maltese consulate in Algiers. On the other hand, this means that 4,615 or 91.8 per cent of the applicants were rejected. The figure is now far higher than the 50 per cent rejection rate mentioned by the Prime Minister back in 2015.

In 2017, the European Council urged Malta to ensure that when its consulate grants visas to Algerians, those receiving visas, which are in effect also visas to the whole Schengen Zone, they have an actual will to return home, and that they will not disappear into the wider European Union.

Following an assessment on the operations of Malta’s Consulate and visa section in Algiers, the Council recommended that Malta: “ensure[s] that applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis, with particular attention paid to the applicant’s will to return as evidenced by their individual socio-economic situation in the country of residence”.

The Council also urged Malta to carry out more in-depth investigations of first-time applicants at the Algiers Consulate. It also recommended that Malta “fully applies the provisions on issuing multiple-entry visas, including visas with long validity as provided for in Article 24(2) of the Visa Code, to bona fide applicants who have proven their reliability and integrity, while continuing to carry out more in-depth investigations of first-time applicants”.

Accusations of irregularities with the issuance of visas from the Maltese Consulate in Algiers had been a major bone of contention after Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami had raised concerns in Parliament over a seemingly inordinate number of Schengen visas for Algerians being issued by Malta, many of whom, it was alleged, were not staying in Malta and were travelling on and vanishing into other Schengen states. 

It transpired that 7,000 Schengen visas had been issued to Algerian nationals over the span of 18 months in 2014 and 2015.

The European Commission, however, had dismissed claims that there was anything wrong with the issuing of thousands of Schengen visas for Algerian nationals from Malta’s Consulate in Algiers in the timeframe.

For more information visit: www.schengenvisainfo.com