Labour MP Gavin Gulia has criticised the government for not referring the current visas stalemate with Libya to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Speaking last night on the radio programme Fuq Ras il-Musmar, hosted by former Labour minister Reno Calleja, Dr Gulia said the Opposition had never been consulted on this issue, despite the fact that it affected the livelihood of hundreds of Maltese workers in Libya and the Maltese who had invested in that country.

Mr Calleja in a statement said that during the same programme, PL International Secretary and former Foreign Minister Alex Sceberras Trigona argued that Foreign Minister Tonio Borg last week should have gone to Berne, rather than to Trigoli, to discuss the issue.

The impasse was created after Switzerland drew up a blacklist of some 180 senior Libyan officials, banning them entry into all Schengen area countries. Libya retaliated by stopping all visas issued to travellers from Schengen countries, including Malta.

Dr Sceberras Triogna criticised Dr Borg for not speaking to the Maltese workers in Libya while he was in Tripoli. He said that if this issue persisted, Switzerland should be excluded from the Schengen area because of the way it had applied the rules.

Mr Calleja suggested that the government should ask former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici "to intervene with Libya' on the issue.