A number of tenants at Ta’ Qali Crafts Village were left fuming after government officials and police, acting on an order to evict them, swopped down early yesterday and sealed the entrances to their workshops.

The tenants complained the eviction notice, served on about 15 of them, was only published on Wednesday, making it virtually impossible for them to remove heavy machinery from their workshops within the 24-hour deadline.

The 62 tenants occupying the crafts village had been given until the end of last month to decide whether to take up a government offer to renew their lease for 65 years in return for developing a new site within the village at their own expense.

A spokesman for the Economy Ministry yesterday said 50 tenants had accepted this offer, while one had deposited the contract in court as a sign of protest.

He said tenants were understandably disappointed by the dilapidated state in which the Crafts Village had been left under previous administrations. For this reason the government was committed to completing its project to upgrade the village in an efficient manner and within a reasonable time frame.

He did not divulge details of the action carried out by the Land Department and some questions, such as why these 15 tenants were targeted yesterday, were left unanswered.

A number of them were caught completely unawares because the eviction order had been affixed to their properties only the day before. Some watched helplessly as they were barred from entering the huts.

Sources told this newspaper that a tenant who tried to retrieve some of his belongings was stopped in the act and the police seized the items.

Their sense of frustration grew when they discovered that affixed under the 24-hour eviction notice was another, also dated April 22, which had actually given them 20 days to vacate. This raised the question of whether the authorities had changed their mind at the 11th hour.

Alka Ceramics managing director Joan Haber, who was hit by yesterday’s action, told Times of Malta that it was only three weeks ago that her company had been given a plot of land after taking up the government offer to extend the lease.

“How is it possible to transfer equipment, moulds and other machinery in just one day,” she asked.

Other tenants who have taken up the government offer complained that the alternative site allocated to them was still being used by third parties.

“The least we expected from the government was to have a migration plan to the new village in order to have a smooth transition,” they said.