Migrant Evicted From Former St Paul’s Bay Hotel Says Rent Cost As Much As €700 A Month
Rent at the former La Paloma Hotel in St Paul’s Bay cost as much as €700, according to one of the migrant tenants who was recently evicted from the premises.
“The rooms have two beds or four beds, you pay €500, €600, €700 and you can see the kind of life we’re living here,” one of the tenants told TVM. “We’re not happy at all to live here and if I tell you we’re happy it would be a lie. Nobody is happy here. But what can we do? We can work, at least, to have something to pay the rent. That’s why we are here.”
Some reports said the tenants used to pay between €200 and €350 a month, but others said they used to pay between €200 and €350 a fortnight.
A reported 100-150 migrants were evicted from the former hotel last Monday and were rounded up by police, presumably to check their immigration status. One of the residents, a 39-year-old Gambian, was also prosecuted with aggravated possession of cannabis after police found around 30g of the plant on his person.
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