Roger Muscat, 49, from St Paul’s Bay was believed missing yesterday after his family reported no contact for two weeks since he left to work in Libya.
But the commotion caused by online news reports only lasted an hour after Mr Muscat’s brother Jimmy, who had raised the alert on Sunday with the police, called Times of Malta saying that he had just spoken to his brother.
The media had been officially told of the missing person report by the government’s Libya crisis centre.
I spoke to my brother and he is safe and sound working on the ship
“After seeing the news reports, the people who owned the sea vessel contacted the family and gave us a contact number.
“I spoke to my brother and he is safe and sound working on the ship,” a relieved Jimmy Muscat said last night.
On July 21, Mr Muscat told his brother he was going to work on a ship in Libya and asked him not to worry because it was far away from the troublesome areas.
Mr Muscat is employed with the bus company Malta Public Transport services.
But the family got worried when two weeks had passed without hearing anything from him.
It was on Sunday that Jimmy Muscat told the police, who treated the case as one of a missing person.
The police informed the crisis centre at the Foreign Ministry and the necessary checks started to be made.
Mr Muscat’s brother could only provide scant information since he had not given them the name of his employer or where in Libya he was going, according to civil service head Mario Cutajar, who briefed the media about the case.
It was confirmed that Mr Muscat never left Malta by air and the assumption was that he left by sea.
Mr Cutajar said the last recorded signal from Mr Muscat’s Maltese mobile phone was on July 23 and placed him in Libyan territory.
“It could be that Mr Muscat is at sea in Libyan territory,” Mr Cutajar said, adding checks were being done with companies that had contacts with Libya or provided workers for the oil and gas industry.
When contacted soon after the briefing Jimmy Muscat said he went to the police because he got worried about his brother given the circumstances in Libya.
A couple of minutes later he called the newsroom to say he had just made contact with his brother.
Mr Muscat had boarded the cargo ship MV Atlant in Malta on its way to Tripoli but it could not berth as planned.
It is expected to return in two days’ time.
The news came a week after another Maltese, Martin Galea, was released by a Libyan militia 11 days after he was seized for unknown reasons.
Mr Cutajar reiterated the advice to avoid travelling to Libya unless absolutely necessary.
Violence in Tripoli has spread in other areas other than the airport, forcing various European embassies in the capital to relocate operations in neighbouring countries.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com