Maltese workers can start replacing their colleagues stuck in Libya after the North African country dropped its ban on granting visas to Schengen-area citizens.
Many Maltese had been unable to return home to their families for more than six weeks, since no one could come out to replace them, after a diplomatic rift between Libya and Switzerland escalated into the visa ban.
This was resolved on Saturday following an announcement by Spain, which currently holds the EU presidency, that EU nations would again be granting visas to 188 Libyans blacklisted by Switzerland.
A number of Maltese who work at a Tripoli hospital are expected to start returning in the coming days, to be replaced by those who were previously unable to enter the North African country.
Jean Claude Muscat, from Saint James Hospital Group, which opened a Tripoli branch in 2005, said the workers had agreed to stay on to run the hospital.
"It was a difficult decision and we did not force them to," Mr Muscat said, adding that they had not seen their families in over a month. They could now start coming back and those caught up here could start leaving for Libya from today.
Mr Muscat said he was "hugely relieved" that the visa ban had been resolved.
"It had become very challenging to continue running operations with a depleted workforce," he said, adding that key staff, including doctors, the hospital's head nurse, management personnel and the marketing manager had been caught in Malta.
A Maltese businessman, who did not wish to be named, said he would be returning to Libya in the coming days to catch up with the "backlog" that had accumulated in the past few weeks.
"I can now go and meet my clients," he said, adding that many Maltese workers had already booked their flights over.
But the ban reversal came two weeks too late for a Maltese worker, who was made redundant earlier this month after he could not return to his job in Libya. The father-of-one had a contract with a retail company in Libya until the end of this year.
"There were several problems. The fact that I was unable to go to work was the straw that broke the camel's back," he said, adding that he was now trying to find another job.
Contacted yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said the pressure placed by Malta through diplomatic initiatives had spurred the EU into taking the necessary action which led to the rift being resolved.
"It was Malta who always raised the issue at EU level, and we were supported by Italy, Spain, Portugal and Slovenia," Dr Borg told The Times yesterday.
Apart from raising the issue during the February and March meetings of the council of foreign affairs ministers, Malta had made it clear that it would start issuing limited visas to the 188 Libyans on Switzerland's blacklist.
"Malta's position was enough for the EU to put pressure on Switzerland to withdraw its blacklist," Dr Borg said, adding that attempts were already being to close the loophole in Schengen regulations used by Switzerland to blacklist the Libyans.
Dr Borg said there had been the risk of the problem escalating into a rift between the EU and the Arab world. "When I went to Libya, they made it clear that this could have happened," he said.
He said that apart from the impact the visa ban had on Maltese working in Libya, it was imperative to maintain good relations with a neighbouring country.
Dr Borg accused Switzerland of using the Schengen rules for political reasons, pointing out that when a number of Bulgarian nurses were condemned to death in Libya, nobody had imposed political sanctions against the North African country.
Asked whether Col. Gaddafi's visit to Malta was still on the cards, Dr Borg said there were no indications from the Libyan government that he was not coming.
Speaking during a political activity yesterday morning, Labour MP George Vella hailed the news of the resolution.
Meanwhile, Libya's Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa said his country's relations with the European Union had returned to normal.
"We have good relations with the Europeans and we have cooperation together. Now I think it's solved because the European Union decided to take off this blacklist and now everybody is welcome to come," he told Reuters in an interview.
The dispute with Switzerland, however, remained unresolved, he added, calling this a separate issue.
Switzerland is still trying to secure the release of a Swiss businessman imprisoned in Libya. He was held soon after the Libyan leader's son Hannibal Gaddafi was arrested in Geneva on charges, later dropped, of mistreating two domestic employees.