Category Archives: Malta

London ballroom hosts showcase event for ‘golden passports’

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Three PMs attend marketing sales event on how wealthy can snap up citizenship from $100,000

Three prime ministers took to a stage in the ballroom of a five-star London hotel this week offering the world’s wealthiest people “golden passports” and citizenship of their countries in return for hundreds of thousands of pounds of investment or flat “contributions”.

Allen Chastanet, the prime minister of the Caribbean island of St Lucia, told about 300 members of the super-rich elite and their advisers gathered at the Rosewood hotel for “global citizenship conference” that his country’s economic mission was “going after high net-worth individuals and giving them a comfortable place to live”.

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Malta to launch public inquiry into murder of prominent journalist

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Daphne Caruana Galizia, who wrote a popular anti-corruption blog, was killed by a car bomb outside her home

Following international pressure, the government of Malta has said it will launch an independent public inquiry into the murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Caruana Galizia, who wrote a popular anti-corruption blog, was killed by a car bomb outside her home on the island on 16 October 2017.

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Migrant rescue ship with 40 people arrives in Malta after EU deal

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Vessel allowed entry under agreement that other countries will look after those onboard

A group of 40 migrants rescued by a German charity ship have landed in Malta and will be taken care of by other EU member states after a deal negotiated by Berlin.

The 40 people were rescued on Wednesday from a small boat off the Libyan coast by the ship Alan Kurdi, which belongs to the NGO Sea-Eye. The NGO then sailed them to southern Italy, saying the port of Lampedusa was the closest and safest harbour.

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Three formally charged in Malta for murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia

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Trial over anti-corruption journalist’s killing may not take place for years, say experts

Three men have been formally charged over the 2017 murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese anti-corruption journalist and blogger who was killed by a car bomb in November 2017.

Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, and Vincent Muscat, all in their fifties, were arrested in December of that year.

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Fears grow over migrant rescue boat stranded for a week

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Vessel barred from entering Italy or Malta since picking up dozens of refugees on 3 April

Concerns are rising for the wellbeing of 64 people stranded on a migrant rescue vessel in the Mediterranean for a week because neither Italy nor Malta will allow the boat to dock.

The migrants and refugees were rescued from a dinghy off Libya on 3 April by a rescue boat operated by the German NGO Sea-Eye and named Alan Kurdi after the Syrian boy who drowned in 2015.

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Rescued migrants hijack merchant ship off Libya

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The 108 people picked up by Elhiblu 1 reportedly hijacked it when they learned they were being returned to Libya

A merchant ship has been hijacked by refugees and migrants that it had rescued off the coast of Libya, and is now heading towards Malta, the Italian deputy prime minister and Maltese authorities have said.

Corriere della Sera and Italian news agencies reported that 108 people were picked up by the tanker Elhiblu 1, and hijacked the vessel when it became clear that it planned to take them back to Libya.

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‘Golden visa’ schemes pose risk to EU security, Brussels to say

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European commission is expected to sound alarm on their use to attract wealthy

Brussels is to warn EU member states that the “golden visa” schemes used by Britain and others to attract the wealthy have exposed the continent to corruption and organised crime.

A report from the the European commission, expected to be published on Wednesday, claims the schemes designed to encourage the super-rich to invest in return for residency rights or citizenship pose a danger to the continent’s security.

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Another Malta protest demands justice for slain journalist

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Thousands of people in Malta took to the streets for the second Sunday in a row , saying they will not be silenced until there is justice for murdered journalist and anti-corruption blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia. Organisers said 10,000 people took part in the rally in Sliema, across the harbour from capital Valletta, in honour of the 53-year-old who was killed in a car bombing on 16 October.