1,963 foreigners were found working without the necessary permits in the first nine months of the year by Jobsplus inspectors.

The information was divulged in parliament by Minister for Education and Employment Evarist Bartolo in response to a parliamentary question asked by PN MP Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.  Mifsud Bonnici asked about the amount of unlicensed foreigners found working so far this year.

Bartolo's answer showed that in total 1,963 unlicensed foreigners has been found working in Malta, 1,121 being from outside of the EU and a further 842 being from EU countries.  The data takes into consideration the first nine months of this year.

Replying to a separate parliamentary question, Bartolo also said that JobsPlus received 27,636 work permit applications from third-country nationals this year up to October.   Bartolo said that as of this October, there were 2,545 pending applications for licenses to work in the country.

Data published by Eurostat earlier this month showed that 10,974 first residence permits were issued by Malta to non-EU nationals in 2017, a statistic which equates to 23 issued for every thousand residents - the highest rate in the European Union and Economic Area. The same study found that 54.6% of those were issued for employment reasons