Updated at 5.35pm

More than two dozen people were taken away for police questioning on Sunday morning after officers raided a building in Ħamrun.

Officers from the police’s Immigration and Rapid Intervention Unit entered the house on Triq Farsons just before 9am following reports that the three-storey building was being used to illegally house migrants.

A police spokesperson said that 36 people believed to be living in the building were taken away by police. Most are from the Gambia, Mali and Senegal and will be subjected to routine immigration checks. 

The building's landlord has been identified and is reportedly cooperating with the police. 

When contacted following Sunday's crackdown, director of the Foundation for Shelter and Support to Migrants Ahmed Bugre said that migrants with Italian papers were coming to Malta looking for work.

It was within their right to travel to another EU country, although not for work.
“We are working with the authorities to come out with practical solutions as the situation as it is leads to exploitation and slavery, and cannot be sustained. It is very difficult situation given the current situation at law and EU policy,” he told Times of Malta.

The clampdown mirrors a similar raid in Qormi last August, when police officers and Planning Authority officials shut down a cow farm which had been converted to house around 120 migrants, many of whom came to Malta from Italy.

On that occasion, many of the farm’s residents ended up sleeping rough with nowhere to go. Police did not press charges against the landlord and the Planning Authority also said it would not be taking any further action.