A group of tourists were caught urinating in public on a residential street in Swieqi last week, in what residents and the locality’s mayor say is just the latest in a string of incidents of anti-social behaviour.
Footage captured by a CCTV camera affixed to a residential property shows a group of men urinating in the street and against a parked car in broad daylight early on Friday morning.
Calling the incident “disgusting”, one resident said it was not the first time the peace of the neighbourhood had been disturbed by rowdy tourists.
Meanwhile, Swieqi’s mayor complained there had been a “great deal of vandalism” in the locality – which sits next to Paceville, one of the country’s main party districts – as tourist numbers continued to climb.
Triq il-Ġogi resident George Portelli said he was woken up by noise in the street at around 6am on Friday.
He discovered urine on the road and over his son’s parked car. After reviewing CCTV footage from his property, he found that a group of young tourists renting an Airbnb across the street were responsible.
Portelli said he was “wound up and angry about it”, calling the occurrence “disgusting, and not a one-off”.
They only come here for a week, so they don’t care. But we live here- Swieqi resident George Portelli
Pointing to other recent incidents of rowdy behaviour in the area, including a prolonged street argument among another group of young tourists, Portelli emphasised that this was unfair to residents.
“They only come here for a week, so they don’t care. But we live here,” he said, adding that when he had tried to report Friday’s incident to the police, he was told a report could not be filed because nobody had been hurt and there had been no damage to private property.
When contacted, Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat said the incident was part of a wider problem that got worse as the number of tourists staying in the area rose exponentially.
“There’s been a great deal of vandalism; people kicking side-view mirrors and damaging road signs,” he said, adding one such incident had even seen a group of tourists drag a tree along the streets.
Breaking car mirrors
Vandals have been caught on camera breaking car mirrors in the locality over the last two weeks.
Two videos show at least five young men, some appearing in an inebriated state, targeting vehicles on two of Swieqi’s main roads.
“There’s no control whatsoever, it’s a very big problem,” said Muscat, describing residents as being “fed up and frustrated” at the situation.
He said that until the anti-social behaviour had been dealt with – along with other problems such as garbage being left on the streets outside of collection times – the Malta Tourism Authority should stop issuing more Airbnb applications. “It [licensing more short-let properties] can’t go on; it’s only going to make it worse,” he said.
Muscat said he had “repeatedly asked” the police commissioner to step up the number of police patrols but had received no reply.