Air Malta orders six farmers to leave fields

Six farmers who have been tilling tracts of land adjacent to the Hal-Ferh holiday complex in Ghajn Tuffieha for over 30 years have been upset by a letter from Air Malta informing them that they have to vacate their fields by October.

Aurelio Sammut, Michael Chetcuti and Leli Muscat, three of the farmers, said they were tilling the land long before Air Malta developed the former barracks into the complex.

The land had been given to the farmers by the government or by other farmers who had themselves obtained it from the government, they said.

The farmers do not pay any lease as the land was given to them under a precarium title. This also means, however, that they have no rights and can be told to move off at any time.

But the farmers feel that after being on the land for so long, the government should leave their tracts, measuring some 30 tumoli, out of the deal when Hal-Ferh is privatised.

"The existing complex is already very large and can do without the agricultural land we till. Tourism is welcome and needed but not at all costs. We should not sacrifice more agricultural land for tourism," they argued.

One of the farmers had planted some 500 vine trees. There are other fruit trees in the area and the fields yield two harvests a year.

The farmers said they hoped the Prime Minister would look into the matter.

The Times sought to obtain an official reaction but none was received by yesterday.