Local pressure group Moviment Graffitti held a protest on Saturday, calling for the introduction of a system to license contractors responsible on construction sites, where several deaths have taken place in the past years.

Outside the Planning Ministry in Floriana, Moviment Graffitti remembered the victims of the construction industry in the country, two months after 20-year-old Jean Paul Sofia died in a construction collapse in Kordin.

Sofia was found dead, buried beneath the rubble following a 16-hour search, and the police has so far failed to charge anyone with a crime in connection with the incident.

“This construction industry is stained with the blood of people like Jean-Paul Sofia... we owe it to him and the other families affected by these deaths,” a relative of Sofia said at the demonstration, in which she called for a rigorous set of rules for the industry.

“We need intelligent laws, harsh penalties for those who do not respect the rules, effective inspections during various stages of construction and better security standards with facts and deeds,” Sofia’s relative continued, adding that we cannot let greed command.

Spokesperson for Graffitti Christine Cassar said that the construction accidents that claimed many lives were “inevitable consequences of a rotten system that sacrificed lives for developers’ greed,” adding that the industry lacks any serious regulations.

Cassar said that the deaths of Miriam Pace, Jean Paul Sofia, Rita Vella and a number of construction workers who died on site, could have been avoided but their lives were sacrificed for the greed of the few.

“We cannot stay silent... construction is leaving numerous victims and innocent people dead, and families are left broken-hearted,” she said.

She condemned government for being ready to cater to the BCA lobby rather than protecting the lives of Maltese and Gozitan citizens.

Graffitti pointed out that magisterial inquiries over construction site deaths take several months.

It said that despite the many promises of reform, the changes that were made were only cosmetic, as greed continues to dominate the sector of planning and construction.

“There is not even a regulatory code for the building of construction and no law which regulates the basic components for construction such as machinery and equipment used,” it continued.

The names of all victims of construction industry deaths which happened since 2017 were mentioned at the protest, many of whom were foreign nationals whose name was not known. 2022 saw a record eight deaths related to the construction industry.

 

Photos of Sofia and Pace were then placed in front of the ministry with flowers.