Thousand plus evacuees arrive in Malta from Libya

A total of 1,102 evacuees arrived in Malta on Friday from Libya by sea amid escalating violence in the North African country.
The catamaran San Gwann, operated by the Maltese conglomerate of ship owning companies Virtu Holdings Limited, arrived in Malta at about 4 a.m. local time (0200 GMT), with 302 passengers on board -- 40 Koreans and 262 Indian nationals.
The vessel left from Zuwaytinah, south west of Benghazi. The vessel was operated under charter of Daewoo Logistics Corporation.
Chartered by the Philippine government, the MV Bridge ship docked in Malta carrying some 800 Philippine workers picked up from Benghazi and Misrata, Libya's third largest city. Five Maltese and nine workers from other countries were also on board.
Malta's Ministry for Foreign Affairs said that the evacuation of Maltese workers was possible following an arrangement made between Maltese Foreign Minister George Vella and his Philippine counterpart Albert del Rosario.
Philippine nationals will remain aboard the vessel until chartered Philippine Airlines planes arrive at Malta Airport to take them back to their home country. The majority of people are believed to be mostly oil and hospital workers.