“The lack of a Police presence in Gozo is something that is serious and is happening everyday. This shortcoming comes not from over-worked officials, but from those responsible for allocating human and financial resources,” the Nationalist Party has said.

In a statement the Shadow Minister for Gozo Alex Borg and Shadow Home Affairs Minister Joe Giglio, insisted that “the lack of police in Gozo has been felt for a long time. Gozo is not a single district like the rest of Malta’s districts, but it is like the whole of Malta, albeit in miniature.”

The MPs argued that, “now that we are approaching the summer season, where we know that the population of Gozo is more than doubling; where public activities such as parties and other things, increase, the human resources of the police will remain as they are.”

They said that “in Malta you may find certain needs in one district that you will not find in another. In Gozo, which is one district, you will find all the needs of all the districts of Malta.”

The MPS stated that the “lack of security in Gozo also stems from the fact that the population of Gozo has changed, but the way we look at security has not changed, or is only slowly changing.”

“Marsalforn and Xlendi have become phenomena of multicultural change,” they said. “Even in this regard, the security situation has not changed, with only one or two Police officers in each of these localities to protect tourist areas.”

“The Port of Mgarr, where in recent years we have seen a large increase in the number of leisure establishments, also requires the presence of Police due to the number of people it is attracting, especially at weekends,” the MPs said.

They stressed that “the same applies to Comino, which, in the summer, had a watch open 24 hours a day. This year we understand it will be open from 9am to 8.30pm. The question remains what will happen after this time when the summer activity continues during the night as well?”

Photo by Alain Salvary

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