Housing crisis caused by uncontrolled migration, PN says

Rising rents and immigrants sleeping in public gardens are the result of government’s unplanned importation of foreign labour, the Nationalist Party said.

It accused the government of “inflating” economic growth figures through its reliance on a growing foreign population.

“The government has to seriously address the housing crisis it brought about with its own hands,” the PN said, noting that rents were rising.

The party accused the government of ignoring the impact of a growing foreign population on the “wages of Maltese workers, the country’s infrastructure, environment, traffic, the Maltese language, social cohesion, rents and social housing”.

The party said the crisis was forcing migrants to live in garages, sleep in public gardens around Marsa or take up residence in cow farms. The latter reference was to a recent case in which 120 migrants were evicted from a cow farm that had been illegally transformed into a dormitory.

“The government should shoulder responsibility for this unplanned migration policy,” it said.

The PN was reacting to recent statements made by the Federation of Real Estate Agents, a breakaway organisation, in which it expressed concern over the housing situation.