The government must seriously begin to address the housing situation, a crisis which it brought upon itself as a result of its planless immigration politics, the Nationalist Party said in a statement on Thursday. 

The Nationalist Party said that a statement issued by the Federation of Estate Agents in recent days confirmed that the government has created a problem and instead of trying to solve it, they are humiliating the victims of its own politics. 

The Federation had described the situation as desperate, with families sleeping in garages and cars as they could not afford the high property prices that the Maltese market currently sees.

The crisis, the PN said, was one of the results of the immigration without a plan which over the course of last year results in no less than 15,000 net immigrants taking up residence on the Maltese Islands.  The PN pointed out that these 15,000 are only those who are declared, and that there are many more undeclared, as was the case of over a hundred migrants which were “treated like animals” in a farm. 

The PN said that the government has embarked on a political strategy of using high immigration levels to blow up economic statistics with a large increase in the population of foreigners as opposed to an increase in wealth per person. 

The government has not taken into consideration the effects of its politics on a number of sectors and issues such as the salary levels of Maltese workers, the country’s infrastructure and environment, traffic, the Maltese language, social cohesion and social housing and rental prices, the statement read. 

Despite denials from the government, the PN said, garages which have electricity and running water are being used as homes for immigrants; public gardens like the one near 13 December Avenue in Marsa have been turned into dormitories; along with the notorious case of the 120 immigrants which were “taken advantage of like animals” in a farm, are all proof of these effects. 

The PN called on the government to take political responsibility for the planless manner in which it is promoting large-scale immigration.  The opposition party said that this was indeed blowing up economic figures, but wealth per person is stagnating and the most vulnerable members of the population are not only facing rental prices of hundreds of euros per month, but they are not finding shelter in social housing.  Instead, the statement concluded, the government was humiliating them.