Most of the migrants who were found living in a complex of stables in Marsa on Wednesday face deportation, having over-stayed their three-month window after coming here from Italy.  

The stables were being rented out as illegal accommodation to what were initially estimated to be “around 100” people by one officer, although other officials later estimated that number to be lower.

The Planning Authority said 200 beds were found in the stables and 37 people had been “arrested and taken in for questioning”. 

It is not clear what penalties the owners will face – if any – for renting out the stables illegally and in a condition the Planning Authority described as “inhumane”. However, sources said they would likely face court action that would result in a fine.

One of the landlords, Nazju Tonna, told Times of Malta that he had rented out two units to four migrants – two in each unit – and said he was “not doing a bad thing”.

“This is my property. We didn’t just take up land like they do [with boathouses] in Armier. We weren’t selling drugs in this property, we were just giving a place to live to these migrants, helping them out.”

He said the migrants had better living conditions than those of some Maltese in the rental market today.

A visit by reporters, however, uncovered squalid living quarters, with migrants living in spaces making up half the minimum area stipulated for a dwelling in the law.  

Mohammad, a 24-year-old Eritrean, told Times of Malta he had been living in the stable for three months, paying €100 in monthly rent.

We were just giving them a place to live

He shared the room, roughly 12 square metres in size, with another three migrants he had met while working manual jobs in Malta’s black market construction sector. 

“I know it is not a good place to live, but I don’t have any money. I can sleep here and then go to work, that is enough,” he said. 

While he has the necessary paperwork to live and work in Malta, his ‘roommates’ did not and were among the group of residents who were rounded up.  

Planning Authority chief Johann Buttigieg said the average stable was around three metres deep by three metres wide. 

Mr Buttigieg said the shared living quarters for 12 people was approximately 20 square metres – around the size of between two and three “tight” one car garages, and less than half the minimum size permitted by law for a one-bedroom apartment.

This, Mr Buttigieg said, was the space where these migrants “cooked, washed and lived”.

Mosa, 26, stood in the filthy stable that he used to call home and packed his things into a plastic bin bag. 

“It is hard to get a house in Malta; that is why I lived here. If you want to try and find a house you need a lot of money. And, even if you have a job, most people do not want to rent to an immigrant. When you are an immigrant it is very difficult to find a place to stay, if it wasn’t so then I wouldn’t have been living here in the first place,” he said.  

Mosa was one of dozens of migrants to end up homeless after the raid, and was joined by neighbours in expressing disbelief at being kicked out of his home.

Shamim, 28, said he could not understand why the raid had been called in the first place. 

No one wants to let us rent their house or apartment, because we are immigrants, so what do we do now?

“What did we do to the Maltese? Nothing. We were living here, not bothering anyone, just working and living, you know? And now we don’t have anywhere to go. No one wants to let us rent their house or apartment, because we are immigrants, so what do we do now? Sleep on the street? In some square... somewhere... it is not fair,” he said.  

The director of human rights NGO Aditus, Neil Falzon, said he was not surprised to read the news that yet another group of migrants had been found living in “squalor”.

He said it was disturbing that some were seeking to profit off the misfortune of those who had nowhere else to turn. 

“They are profiting by racist exploitation that ‘houses’ people in structures intended for animals. Malta’s economic boom lives off the exploitation of migrants and returns close to nothing to its slave labourers,” he said. 

The raids conducted also did nothing to address the serious obstacles that some migrants faced on a daily basis. 

Primarily, it was time the authorities ensured that migrants had suitable housing alternatives, he said.

“We are extremely worried about the fate of the persons evicted this morning. Where will they sleep tonight? Do the authorities even care?” he said.

Meanwhile, human rights campaigner Maria Pisani said the migrants evicted would have no chance of finding a spot in the already over-populated open centres.