Former government envoy Neville Gafa has fired a jibe at Evarist Bartolo over a Facebook post which the Foreign Minister made on the situation in Libya.

Bartolo posted early on Thursday morning thanking the Libyan government for stopping 2,000 migrants from leaving the North African country to Malta.

“Thanks to the work we did as a government with Serraj’s government, a new page of cooperation was opened, and is already bearing fruit – even though only small steps have been made so far and there is more to be done”, Bartolo posted.

Bartolo was referring to a on official visit late last May, when he accompanied Prime Minister Robert Abela to Tripoli for talks on illegal immigration. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the two countries which saw, amongst other things, the setting up of migration coordination centres in Tripoli and Valletta.

“In the weeks since we visited him in Tripoli, Serraj’s government has taken serious steps against human trafficking as well which, each year, makes millions of euros on the backs of immigrants which they send towards Malta and Italy through the Central Mediterranean”, Bartolo said.

The post however seems to have drawn ire from Neville Gafa, a former government envoy who has strong ties with Libya, who penned his own social media post later on Thursday, seemingly in reaction.

“Once again, this morning he woke up fibbing on social medial that thank God it was he who went to Libya, as it was because of him that the Libyan Government managed to keep 2,000 immigrants from coming into our country”, Gafa wrote on Facebook.

Although he did not mention Bartolo by name – the reference is clear: Bartolo is known for his early-morning social media posts on a raft of topics.

“I would like to remind him that, aside from Malta, there is also Lampedusa and Sicily and that the majority of migrants disembark there. I would suggest that he stops speaking about it as though they had a booking to come to Malta!”, he continued.

He also reminded that the visit to Libya was only three hours long – noting that it’s a bit of a stretch to think that anything can be solved with the Libyans in three hours – perhaps a swipe at the Prime Minister’s short visit as a whole – and adding that the visit wasn’t widely reported in Libyan media.

“I recommend that he builds up the courage to visit the detention centres before commenting about them,” Gafa’ said. If not, it was better not to say anything at all, he said.

“Of course, to visit them, you need to spend a week in Libya like I used to spend, with the difference that when you went it was in a time when there was no fighting in Tripoli”, he said.

Gafa’s ties to Libya are well known. He himself admitted to having brokered a secret deal between Malta and Libya for intercepted migrants to be returned to Libya, while Prime Minister Robert Abela went to Gafa for his help with contacts in Libya during a migration crisis earlier this year.