Officials from the Government Property Division, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and the Public Works Department yesterday started to demolish illegal structures and removing caravans from Bahar ic-Caghaq.

The operation started at around 7.15am and is expected to last between five and eight days.

There was a strong police presence of around 150, headed by Police Commissioner John Rizzo, and a number of senior police officials since early morning. Employees from the Water Services and Enemalta corporations were also carrying out duties in the area.

Meanwhile, campers worked at clearing up their belongings and removing structures built illegally around their caravans to make way for the truck campers to be towed or driven away. The sizes of vehicle campers varied from 11 feet to 37 feet and some families had built enclosed spaces around their caravans. Structures of wood and stone, tents and materials were in place to provide for shelter against the elements. Areas beneath the caravans were cemented or covered by plastic and mats.

Some 300 families camped on the site facing the sea every summer on a stretch of land which covered around 12,000 square metres.

The Government Property Division issued a 48-hour eviction order on Monday which requested campers to pack up and leave the area since they were not entitled to stay on the land. A statement by the Secretariat for Revenue and Lands yesterday said that the aim of the operation was to stop abusive occupation of public land which is to be restored for public use.

A number of campers had already been informed of the illegal situation by an enforcement notice of 17 May, 2006. Some campers explained that in 2006, a number of caravans were removed from an inner area after this notice and the area was not occupied again.

They argued that two days was too short a time to serve as notice to get everything cleared and many spent the last couple of days and nights trying to remove belongings. Those vehicle campers that were not removed by their owners were towed to the Maghtab landfill from where owners may pick them up later against a charge.

Caravan owners explained to journalists that some had been camping there for 20 years and had been living their summers “as an extended family”.

“We are now losing all our pleasure,” a number of women said.

They described how their children had grown up together playing all kinds of street games and sports. They had even created an enclosed space for playing bocci games. Mass used to be celebrated every Saturday evening and the feast of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart was celebrated last summer. Water bowsers were called to the area twice a week to re-fill the water tanks which many campers kept and they used to get bread delivered by bakery vans every day.

Campers had electricity from generators and some were expecting to get cable television services by the coming summer. The two-day eviction notice was a “surprise”, they said.

Brian Calleja, secretary of the Safari Camping Club, which took care of organisation on the site, explained that 150 families were members in this club and he himself had been a committee member for the past 15 years.

The committee applied for a permit to camp every year and this had been acknowledged on one particular year. The official camping season at the Safari Camping Club opened on 1 May every year and lasted until the end of summer but campers often stayed in the area if weather conditions permitted.

“We feel very hurt and sorry because we are not squatters, as many portray us,” Mr Calleja said. “We were not even given an alternative site to camp,” he added.

He also pointed out that on a particular occasion, they had been told to camp in another area known as ‘Qalet Marku’ until the road to the camping site was asphalted.

An Enemalta substation on which a sign read, ‘Caravan Site Bahar ic- Caghaq BHQC 0001’ was also built in the area, although campers never got electricity services. Public toilet facilities and showers had also been built by the government as part of an embellishment project around 20 years ago which cost e815,280, (Lm350,000), committee members explained.

“Thus, the area is known as a camping site and has been a proposed camping site on MEPA plans for years,” Mr Calleja said.

The Safari Camping Club committee should be meeting the Parliamentary Secretary for Revenues and Land Jason Azzopardi on 21 October to discuss the matter.