PD calls for international body to fight crime in Malta

Partit Demokratiku (PD) have tabled a Private Members Motion titled 'Protecting Malta' for the establishment of an internationally-led body to combat organised crime in and around Malta. PD Leader Godfrey Farrugia said that "Malta's reputation is being tarnished by reports of smuggling, smuggling through Maltese waters of human beings, fuel, tuna, tobacco and narcotics, not to mention the negative press received due to money laundering, sale of passports and the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia."

The motion proposes that the body investigating these illegalities in Maltese waters be based on the United Nations on the International Commission Against Corruption and Impunity.

This comes after reports by the Panel of Experts founded by the United Nations Security Council (UNCS) which suggest that human and contraband trafficking, as well as fuel smuggling, is still taking place in Libya. The report says that many sea vessels leave Malta and stop at Libya to collect contraband fuel obtained from the refinery in Zawija currently controlled by militias. The report says that this smuggled fuel has a value of more that €750 million.

"The Panel of Experts seems to suggest that an international cartel of organised crime is very active in the Central Mediterranean," Farrugia says. "While many arrests in relation to these crimes took place in Libya and Italy, no such arrests took place in Malta."

PD has asked for a detailed independent investigation into any suspected Maltese connections to this international cartel. It also asked for the UNSC to establish an international commission in the area to tackle organised crime.