Four Bangladeshis enrolled at the American University of Malta never showed up on campus and are suspected to have used their student visas to travel to another EU country.
The absence of the four will make a significant dent in the new institution’s already meagre student complement, which started off at 15 at the beginning of the academic
year, though it was meant to be 300.
It will also mean that the Prime Minister has to revise the updated figure of “over 30” students he gave to Parliament during a debate on the AUM last Thursday.
Sources informed The Sunday Times of Malta that the four students were recruited by the university a few weeks ago but “disappeared” before they had even reached the Cospicua campus.
In what may be a case of irregular migration, they are suspected to have used the Schengen visas they were granted on the strength of their student status to make their way to another EU country. The Schengen visa allows its holder free movement in 22 EU Member States and four other European countries.
Sources close to Identity Malta, the government agency responsible for issuing Schengen visas, told The Sunday Times of Malta that an internal probe had been launched to try to find out what happened to the students.
The sources indicated that Identity Malta officials had originally been reluctant to issue visas to the students, since they suspected that the four simply wanted to gain a foothold in the EU on the strength of the AUM-issued letter confirming their enrolment.
