Almost 40,000 foreign workers in Malta

A total of 37,717 foreign workers were registered as employed in Malta as of March 2017, according to Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo.

In reply to a parliamentary question, he said that 27,334 of these hailed from EU countries, while 10,383 were third country nationals.

Gozo had a total of 1,295 registered foreign workers, 1,107 of which were from the EU and 188 from third countries. He added that statistics for Gozo were indicative, since a number of large companies were registered as having a Maltese address but had a few employees in Gozo. Therefore the figures for Gozo were based on having a Gozo residential address.

Bartolo maintained that a special section within Jobsplus, the government jobs agency, carries out regular inspections of employers across Malta and Gozo to identify cases of unregistered foreign workers who are employed illegally.

In such cases, action is taken to regularise their employment, and if this isn’t done, the employers would be taken to court.