Speaking to The Malta Independent, one of the scientists said that at 8am the three employees reported for work at the ministry. He said a certain Mr Crocker told another person to take them to an office on the top floor of the ministry. Inside this room there were two desks and nothing else. The scientists spent between 8am and 4pm inside this room.

Although everyone left the ministry at 1.30pm, since government workers are still on summer time, the three scientists were not told that everyone was leaving and were left ‘to rot’ inside this room. He also complained that no one spoke to them all day long.

Asked what they were planning to do today, the scientist said they will go back to the ministry so no one would ever think that they did not want to work.

Last week the Occupational Health and Safety Authority ordered staff at the Forensic Laboratory not to carry out any more work inside the lab because of many health hazards.

Since then, it is unknown whether the authorities actually did anything about the situation. A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office told this newspaper earlier this week that the government ministries – three of them – had taken stock of the situation and were looking into the matter. Nothing has ever been said or heard any more.

Asked whether anyone had approached them following extensive coverage about the prevailing problems and health hazards at the Forensic Laboratory, the scientists replied in the negative.

On the contrary, he said, “We continued to receive nominations from the court but we could not accept them because we have nowhere and nothing to work with.”

Moreover, the police yesterday delivered a number of court exhibits that they could not accept either because they had nowhere to store them. Police were told to take them back to the magistrate because otherwise their value as evidence in court could be lost.