A Swieqi local councillor is demanding a full-time police presence in his village to deter the wanton night-time vandalism and noise pollution created by revellers who are making life “hell” for residents.
Describing Swieqi as “lawless”, Nationalist councillor Paul Fenech said residents felt abandoned by the authorities because despite years of complaints, the village still does not have any permanent police officers assigned to enforce law enforcement on its streets.
Instead, when faced with criminality, they are forced to report to St Julian’s police station, which dispatches officers to investigate if and when they are available – often too late to catch the perpetrators.
“It is inconceivable that an area that covers Swieqi, Ibraġ, Madliena and part of St Andrew’s does not have police officers assigned to it. We are facing problems imported from another locality (Paceville/St Julian’s). Yet, we are not provided with any resources to deal with these problems, while Paceville and St George’s Bay has numerous officers patrolling though the night,” Mr Fenech told The Sunday Times. He said residents, particular in lower Swieqi, endured “hell” every night throughout the summer months and every weekend in winter.
Revellers who have either parked their cars or live in the area frequently vandalise cars and property while shouting and singing into the early hours of the morning.
According to Mr Fenech, it is not unusual for residents to find drunken people urinating, vomiting, or even having sex in their gardens.
He said many of the culprits in the summer were young foreigners who study at language schools or work in the area and live in rented accommodation. However, in the winter many of the culprits appeared to be Maltese.
“The Paceville business community promotes an ‘Ibiza brand’ in Malta but Ibiza should end in their business zone, not extend to our residential area,” Mr Fenech said.
He praised a police inspector and superintendent for doing their best with limited resources, but said unless they are provided with personnel exclusively dedicated to Swieqi the problem would never be resolved. Mr Fenech owns a language school himself but insists he would not tolerate reports of anti-social behaviour from any of his students and claims he has lost business for reporting students to the police and their respective embassies.
He was finally moved to contact The Sunday Times after coming across 20 intoxicated young foreigners at 5.45 a.m. on a recent Thursday morning on Swieqi Road.
They were dancing in the street, insulting passers-by and breaking plants and trees from public property.
Lower Swieqi resident Joanna Curmi said she is forced to spend at least €40 each month to replace wing mirrors broken from her car in the middle of the night. Once she even found a drunken foreign man asleep inside her car. She tried fitting a security light in her garden to deter drunken people from urinating on her property but within weeks the light had been smashed.
“I’ve given up. I’ve never seen a policeman in Swieqi. We call the police but nothing happens – it’s like we don’t exist,” she said.
Mr Fenech said he sympathised with residents but urged them to continue reporting crimes to the police and not suffer in silence as the situation could not change without residents’ involvement.
The police did not respond to questions on their approach to policing in Swieqi.