Former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici said today that he has just returned from a visit to Libya and he felt that Maltese workers should return because the Western part of the country is safe.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said he was in Tripoli last week as guest for a meeting of Libyan tribes. While there he met Libyan government officials who said that Maltese workers should return.

The Maltese government, he said, should not obstruct such a return.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that the Maltese government's decision to evacuate workers so quickly from Libya was a mistake. The exodus of many foreign workers had brought many projects to a standstill. Libyan government  officials had urged him to encourage Maltese workers to return and make those projects theirs.

The former Labour leader said it was a lie that Nato was acting to protect civilians and he had seen schools, hospitals and offices hit by Nato bombs.

It was shameful, he insisted, that Malta had refused to mediate so that a ceasefire could be arranged. Bringing about a ceasefire was the biggest form of humanitarian aid which Malta could give.

The Libyan government was ready to discuss all changes, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said, but a ceasefire had to be unconditional. The rebels had no right to insist that  Gaddafi should step down before a ceasefire was considered.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said Malta was breaching the Constitutional provisions on neutrality when it allowed French aircraft to land several times in Malta under one pretext or another. Sicily, he said, was just a stone’s throw away and they could have landed there had they wanted to.