The “heroic” work being carried out by Air Malta staff, working tirelessly to evacuate Maltese people from Libya, highlighted the importance of having a national airline, the General Workers’ Union said yesterday.

The union praised all those who were working hard to help those caught in Libya amid the turmoil. These, it said, included people who worked for the national airline, Virtù Ferries, journalists, members of the Armed Forces of Malta and the police.

Meanwhile, Alternattiva Demokratika and the European Greens insisted the EU embrace the concept of “responsibility sharing”.

“In view of the possibility of thousands of migrants fleeing from the brutal Gaddafi regime, the Maltese government, together with other like-minded governments, should insist on an immediately implementable plan, whereby the 27 EU member states provide hospitality and share equally and in a just way among themselves to those people fleeing from the country and seeking refugee status in Malta or Lampedusa,” AD’s spokesman for international affairs, Arnold Cassola, said.