Maltese companies in Libya should be assisted by the government to be kept afloat, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Interviewed on One Radio, Dr Muscat said these should not be assisted through bail-outs or measures which would burden by the tax payers but through other means such as scheduled tax payments.

He said that he was constantly coming into contact with more people who used to work or had business in Libya and who were worried about their situation.

These people were not finding assistance from the Maltese government but if Malta had the political will to help other countries such as Greece to get out of their situation, it should also have the political will to help other Maltese.

These companies had retained their employees and it was only because of this that Malta was not yet feeling the impact of the crisis in Libya, Dr Muscat said.

These people had created employment and they were not getting solidarity from the Maltese government.

The Labour leader said that while the government spoke of social conscience, it believed the state should remain laissez-faire.

Labour, on the other hand believed that the state should offer a safety net of corporate social responsibility “because we are in this together”.

The Labour leader also spoke on the immigration problem noting the people’s concern with the situation.

He said that the European Union this week confirmed that it was just talk on the matter and it was not showing solidarity.

The situation proved that the EU’s immigration plan, which the Maltese government had accepted against the Opposition’s advice, did not solve any of the country’s problems.

He noted that the European Socialists had proposed burden sharing as an obligation on the member states but the European People's Party, which the Nationalist MEPs formed part of, shot down this proposal.

Dr Muscat said that facts showed that the government was weak in the face of immigration.

The government, he said, should take all the necessary steps to protect the national interest and remember that while it had been positive that Malta helped other countries evacuate their people from Libay, a measure the Opposition wholly supported, it also expected, by right, other countries to help Malta with this issue.

Italians and the French, Dr Muscat said, were looking after their own interests, Malta should do the same.

When speaking about hunting, the Labour leader said that the PL would make its promises to hunters in due time.

What it promises would be black on white and once in government, it would implement it.

"We will not promise anything that cannot be achieved," he said.