A group of customers who had tours booked with defunct travel agency Fantasy Tours have today demanded compensation from the government, saying it was responsible for their losses since it had not properly transposed a European directive that would have otherwise protected them.

As they accused the government of "negligence, the incensed clients said the State had failed to protect their rights and gave it two weeks to pay them compensation.

In a judicial protest, filed on their behalf by lawyers Antoine Grima and Keith Bonnici, from the Consumers' Association, the 11 customers argued that according to an EU directive on package travel, travel operators were meant to set up an insolvency fund to reimburse customers in the eventuality that it could not live up to its commitments.

They argued that the directive was introduced and embedded in the Malta Travel and Tourism Services Act but the government failed to implement it and the insolvency fund had never been set up.

Last week, the Consumers' Association advised customers to write an official letter to the government demanding compensation. The association also warned that if the government fails to meet its demand, it would file a judicial protest, that was filed today.

The association said in its protest that the European Court of Justice had already delivered a number of judgment against other EU member states for failing to implement this directive.

Moreover, it warned that if the directive was not implemented in full, it would file a complaint with the European Commission for action to be taken against Malta.

Fantasy Tours director Karl Azzopardi was recently indicted over charges of misappropriation of more than €400,000 in funds it received from clients.