Court rejects ministry’s appeal on information request by non-Maltese resident
Restricting information requests by non-Maltese citizens to persons who have lived in Malta for at least five years was discriminatory and impinged upon the applicant’s fundamental rights, a court of appeal has declared. This declaration was made by a court presiding over an appeal filed by the Home Affairs Ministry requesting revocation of a decision handed down by the Information and Data Protection Appeals Board in March 2022. The proceedings originally stemmed from a request for information made by Access Info Europe to the ministry about the return of third-country migrants by Maltese authorities. That request was forwarded by an Italian researcher engaged by the Madrid-based group while conducting a survey among all EU states together with Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The information requested was to focus specifically on the decisions taken by Maltese authorities in 2017 and 2018, the total number of migrants returned, their age, gender and country of origin, the expenses involved, whether those were national or joint operations, whether assisted or forced returns and other questions in same vein. Access Info Europe claimed that none of the information sought...