The refusal rate for visa applications at the Maltese consolate in Algeria was 83% during the first four months of this year.
The information was provided by Foreign Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela in reply to a Parliamentary Question by PN MP Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.
The data shows that, between January and April 2019, the consolate received 751 applications, of which only 118 were approved. 633 were rejected, for an average rejection rate of 83.6%
A racket in the issuing of visas from the Algerian consultate had been exposed by a whistleblower in 2015.
Subsequently, a National Audit Office (NAO) report had slammed the issuance of Malta visas for Algerians and the thousands of which were issued between March 2014 and September 2015, reporting that one in every four Algerians granted a Maltese Schengen visa never returned home.
The investigation, which had been ongoing since November 2015 at the behest of the Public Accounts Committee found that during the under review, period, 14,640 applications were received, of which 6,779 were issued a visa while 7,589 were refused. The NAO established that 99.5% of applications were decided within the 15-days stipulated in the Visa Code.