Fisherman says Mġarr harbour revamp failed those it was meant to help

A full-time fisherman has filed a court protest after being denied a berth at Gozo’s Mġarr Harbour following a €6 million regeneration project aimed at supporting the fishing community.

Dennis Calleja claimed he had been promised a spot at the restored harbour where he had moored his boat Karma since 2016, only relocating temporarily in 2021 so the project could be completed.

But when the project was completed, the fisherman said he was told there was no longer space for him and that he had been placed on a waiting list.

Calleja, who has been registered as a full-time fisherman since 2008 and is from Mellieħa, described the situation as “surreal” and accused the authorities of placing obstacles in his path.

He filed the judicial protest in the first hall of the civil court against the minister for Gozo and planning, the minister for transport, infrastructure and public works and the state advocate.

The mooring of boats at Mġarr was one of the subjects raised by lawyer Jason Azzopardi when, at the end of 2024, he filed a request for a magisterial inquiry into allegations of a corruption ring for mooring spots at the harbour.

Azzopardi alleged that Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri was aware of the racket and gained political mileage by securing electoral votes through it.  

He also filed two other requests for inquiries into a road in Nadur that ran over budget and a long-delayed Gozo pool complex. All three were rejected by a magistrate earlier this month and Azzopardi has since appealed the decision.

Abusive of public funds, fisherman claims

The regeneration project at Mġarr, co-financed by the EU, was launched in 2019. The government described it as a scheme for the local fishing community, adding pontoons and around 90 new berths for fishing boats “who have long been waiting for such sheltered spaces for their fishing boats”.

Calleja said that, ahead of the project’s completion in 2022, he visited the Transport Malta maritime office in Mġarr to apply for a berth and was told he was already on the list.

But when he returned to resume mooring at the harbour, he was informed there was no space available and he would be placed on a waiting list.

This has been going on for three years, he said.

During this time, he had to berth at Għadira, in Mellieħa. This was causing stress as well as loss of income and added expenses, he said

Għadira was not as sheltered from storms, so Calleja had to monitor the weather forecast and take his boat out of the water when there was bad weather, which added to his expense. 

He lost days of business since he had to wait for the weather conditions to settle before returning to sea and paid his crew even when the boat was not operating. He also had to spend more money on fuel to drive to Gozo, from where he operated.

When he questioned why so many berths were taken up by private boats, he claims he was told that the harbour was for all Gozitans and not just for fishermen. Eventually, he said he was offered to berth in Mġarr but only during bad weather.

While this was appreciated, it did not solve the problem since he had to keep tabs on the weather and kept being called to remove his boat. This even happened during a family funeral when he was threatened with being fined if he did not remove his boat.

Calleja argued that this was abusive and constituted an abuse of power and the abusive administration of public funds since the project was meant to support fishermen.

Lawyers Ann Fenech and Martina Farrugia signed the protest.