Neil Falzon has stepped down from his post as head of the local office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, but it emerged yesterday that he handed in his resignation letter more than a month ago.

Dr Falzon told this newspaper yesterday that he did not feel he had to make the matter public, and insisted that he resigned for “purely personal reasons”. He joined the UNHCR in 2005 and was appointed head of the Malta office in 2007.

His resignation was made known after journalists who called the UNHCR office over the weekend – asking for reactions to Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici’s criticism of the UNHCR – were told he did not work there any more.

A few days ago, Dr Mifsud Bonnici accused the UNHCR, among other things, of criticising Italy’s policy to turn migrants back to Libya, but failing to make any suggestions.

He also accused the UNHCR of taking long to process refugee applications, thus hampering the uptake of refugees by the US.

The UNHCR Malta office is currently run by Acting head Hossein Kheradmand.

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