Foreign security personnel granted leave to carry firearms

Hastily released only this week, a legal notice will grant personal security officers the right to carry arms in the service of protecting foreign dignitaries during the Valletta Summit.

The summit hosted by Malta will bring together EU and African leaders in a bid at forging lasting solutions to the global migration phenomenon, and security concerns also represent a major challenge for the host government.

The legal notice is understood to allow any security officers employed for the role of protecting dignitaries to carry arms.

These include privately contracted security personnel, as well as officers employed by a foreign government or by an international organisation “whose competence to act as such has been certified by an authority outside Malta, who are authorised to carry firearms in the course of their duties outside Malta and who have been officially entrusted with the responsibility of providing protection services to a foreign dignitary visiting Malta.”

The Commissioner of Police will be issuing a permit in terms of these regulations for the import and carriage of firearms and ammunition, “for the purpose of the protection of the life and security of a foreign dignitary, to security officers accompanying foreign dignitaries whilst visiting Malta.”

The request for a permit under these regulations shall be received through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Malta also understands that police officers have expressed concerns about the level of training they have received for the summit.

One source from the Rapid Intervention Unit said that the assault firearms ordered by the police force and intended for clos combat situations had not yet arrived rom the USA.

November is a busy month for the Maltese government, which is hosting the Valletta Summit as well as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, but also an OSCE gathering of ministers and a week of conservation talks by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).