Updated | Ship evacuating 800 Filipinos, five Maltese, arrives from Libya

Around 800 Filipinos and five Maltese nationals arrived in Malta at 11am from conflict-ridden Libya, after being evacuated from the North African country.

The Filipino evacuees will remain on the ship until Friday, when they will board Philippine Airlines flights that will fly them straight back to Manila, Filipino Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said.

One of the evacuees, a 65-year old woman from Benghazi told waiting reporters "I cry for Libya. Everything is bombed, they killed everybody. They are not Muslims... Everybody [is] now far away from Benghazi".

"I cry for Libya. Everything is bombed...they are not Muslims"

The Foreign Affairs Ministry said that the Filipino government had requested aid from Malta which will see a substantial number of its citizens evacuated from Libya to Malta. Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella and his Filipino counterpart Albert del Rosario also agreed to allow a small number of Maltese on board the vessel.

Del Rosario said that the ship will not return to Libya and that further evacuations will be done by land, after Tunisia and Egypt re-opened their borders.

Other countries have also requested the Maltese government’s aid in evacuating its citizens from Libya. England, China, South Korea, the Phillipines, and India have all already thanked the Maltese government for such aid.