Farmers facing eviction to appeal to PM

Farmers at Ghajn Tuffieha are planning to appeal to the Prime Minister to intervene and save some 30 tumoli of agricultural land from being developed.

The farmers, who have been tilling land adjacent to Hal Ferh holiday complex in Ghajn Tuffieha for over 30 years, have been notified they have to vacate their fields by next month.

The complex and all its assets, including the land in question, is to be sold by Air Malta as part of the company's restructuring plan.

Aurelio Sammut, Michael Chetcuti and Leli Muscat, three of the six farmers affected by the decision, argue that they had been tilling the land long before Air Malta developed the former barracks into the complex. They say they had been given the land by the government or by other farmers who had in turn received it from the government.

A spokesman for the ministry responsible for government investments last week said one of the farmers has a regular lease which expires on September 30 while the other fields are occupied by "squatters".

Mr Sammut said it was very unfair for farmers to be called squatters when the company was fully aware that they were tilling the land there.

Showing correspondence exchanged with Air Malta over the years, Mr Sammut said he had even applied for permits from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to change a dangerous roof of an agricultural room. "Squatters do not go about applying for permits. Neither do they write to the company to offer payment for the use of land," he added.

Mr Sammut said the farmers would be writing to the Prime Minister to ask him to intervene so that they would continue tilling the fields, which are a buffer between the main road and Hal Ferh.