Businesses with ties to Libya have suffered a severe blow after the self-declared Tripoli government said it would not recognise official visas, Times of Malta has learnt.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, business people approached by this newspaper said the latest development in Malta had complicated matters further.
“We do not know whom to go to for a travel visa to Libya given there are two competing embassies,” an exporter said.
Libya is effectively being run by two rival groups: the more secular internationally-recognised government based in Tobruk and the self-declared Islamist administration in Tripoli.
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Tobruk government imposes restrictions on visas
Meanwhile, it was announced in the Libya Herald this morning that the Tobruk government has imposed restrictions on Libyan visas to Maltese citizens.
The newspaper said the Libyan Ministry of Interior in Al-Beida instructed its charges d’affaires in Malta not to issue any Libyan visas to Maltese citizens prior to receiving a security clearance from the ministry.
The newspaper said the ministry told the Al-Beida Libyan News Agency this action was due to confirmed security reports that some Maltese arriving in Libya’s western cities were offering "logistic" help to militias pertaining to the Tripoli government to the detriment of national security.
When contacted Foreign Minister George Vella said he received no official communication from the Tobruk chargé d’affaires Habib Lamin about the reported development.
However, Dr Vella insisted if the reports were correct, the Libyan authorities were under no obligation to inform the government since visa procedures were an internal administrative and security issue.