A family is demanding answers and compensation after immigration police allegedly busted open their elderly mother’s front door by mistake.

The sons of 95-year-old Teresa told Times of Malta the officers forcibly entered her home in Marsa on August 4, thinking they were breaking into a building that housed illegal migrants.

It is the second case of its kind to emerge this week. The family asked to go by their first names so as not to identify the location of their home. 

“They apparently mistook my mother’s house for the one they were actually after,” her son Mario said.

“They smashed the lock and broke the door causing significant damage and since then the Police Force has not offered compensation or help with repairs, or even reached out to us to explain what happened. We deserve at least an explanation, but we didn’t get even that.”

The lock was broken and pieces of plywood were fixed to it, seemingly to keep it from falling apart. Photo: Facebook / Darren Carabott

When contacted, her three sons – Mario, John and Tano – said that fortunately, their mother was not at home that day, as she had been transferred to a care home a few months earlier due to her frail condition.

But they said that had the incident happened just a few months earlier, she would have been petrified to see officers forcing themselves into her home.

“It could have even had worse consequences, but thankfully the house was empty,” Mario said.

The issue was first flagged by PN MP Darren Carabott in August and raised again on Friday, during Jon Mallia’s weekly television discussion show Il-Każin.

Second Marsa woman suffered the same fate days later

Then on Monday, a court was told that another Marsa woman, aged 34, faced an even worse situation while she was sleeping topless in her bed days later, on August 12.

It was a separate incident that the woman described as the "worst nightmare".

She said she was rudely awakened by four male police officers who barged into her home, bound her hands and sat her down in her state of near-nudity, only to discover later they had raided the wrong place.

Carabott, who is the opposition's interior and security shadow minister, issued a statement Tuesday, citing both incidents, expressing solidarity with the victims and demanding "clear answers" from Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri and Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa.

"These raids are causing serious concern and distress for a number of people and highlight a lack of accountability from the leadership of the Police Force," he said.

"The Minister and the Commissioner have much to answer for. The PN knows that, once again, in some way, they will evade their responsibility regarding these cases that are creating more victims."

He also demanded answers on which agency or state entity is providing the wrong information and expressed solidarity with police officers forced into such situations due to the shortcomings of their leadership.

'Nobody told us house was broken into'

As for Teresa and her sons, they are still waiting for someone to take responsibility for what happened.

Mario said his mother's house was never rented out to anyone, so it couldn’t have possibly been the house the police were after.

The brothers said no attempt was made to contact them before the forced entry and insisted they would have gladly cooperated with the police if they had been notified.

Her son realised the house was broken into a couple of days later, when he went to do his mother’s laundry. Photo: Facebook / Darren Carabott

The family further added that nobody had bothered to tell them that the house had been smashed open after the incident either.

John realised the house was broken into a couple of days later when he went to do his mother’s laundry. 

He initially thought his mother had been robbed and went to the police station and filed a burglary report.

The issue was first flagged by PN MP Darren Carabott in August and raised again on Friday, during Jon Mallia’s television discussion show Il-Każin. Photo: Facebook / Il-Każin

“But there were no missing belongings and someone had attached small pieces of plywood to the back of the door, which was broken and was also significantly damaged at the jamb and the hinges,” Mario said. 

He thought the neighbour had perhaps fixed the wood pieces to the door to keep it from falling apart, he added.

“That is when the neighbour told us it wasn’t him and that he had seen immigration police bust the door open. He didn’t have our contact so he didn’t know who to call about it.”

Back at the police station, an officer acknowledged there was a botched job and told John to take the issue up with the police commissioner.

“It is evident that there was some hasty attempt to repair the door but the result left much to be desired. The locks were rendered inoperable and we had to purchase and install padlocks to temporarily secure the door as best we could,” Mario said.

“We have no plans to rent the house to anybody and if anyone is using our address illegally, this must be investigated further.”

Questions sent to the police remained unanswered.

'Police must investigate' - Minister

When asked on Tuesday why the police had not informed the family or offered an explanation after the raid, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri downplayed the incident and said the police move forward with their decisions based on where the investigation leads them. 

“Police make decisions based on their investigations. We all agree the police should investigate, even if it then turns out the person in question is not doing anything wrong,” Camilleri said.

When a door is broken open, there are remedies, he said.

“Sometimes police are forced to make certain decisions to follow a lead in an investigation and it's not the first time they compensated residents for damage caused. And that's how it should be,” he added.

Those who feel like they were not treated fairly in such situations can always take the matter to court, Camilleri continued, adding that accusations of police abuse of power can be investigated internally within the force. 

The minister said the police do contact people to compensate them for damages caused during a raid “in some cases”.

“There are other cases where that does not happen, and that is a shortcoming,” he admitted.