Virtu Ferries to run Malta-Tripoli line

Virtu Ferries has opened a commercial line service between Malta and Tripoli. The first voyage is scheduled to depart Malta on Tuesday, 12 August at 1am and depart Tripoli Port at noon of the same day.

On Saturday, the Virtu Holdings-operated catamaran ‘San Gwann’ was chartered by a South Korean company to evacuate its employees in Libya. The vessel departed Tripoli with 251 passengers, including 25 Maltese nationals. All Maltese travelled free of charge.

Yesterday, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil criticized the government for not having ordered the evacuation of Maltese citizens from Libya, as other countries have done.

The government accused Busuttil of trying to bring partisan politics into the government’s plans to ensure the safety of those Maltese citizens still in Libya.

Last night too, Saviour Brincat, a Maltese oil worker who has been working in Libya for the past 25 years, criticized the government for not taking concrete action in helping him evacuate the war-torn country.

“Since 15th July, I have been in constant contact with the Maltese authorities, I have sent several emails and have called them numerous times,” he said in comments to the press.  “However, I was not offered any concrete solutions as to how I am going to get out of the desert.”

“When you are in the desert, you have to book a flight at least three days before, but because of Eid, the flights were cancelled. I only managed to arrive in Malta out of my own will, and after catching three flights,” he said.

Olaph Terribile, the private secretary for the foreign affairs ministry, said that the government is in “constant” contact with all the Maltese in Libya but declined to comment specifically on Brincat’s allegations.