Shatter offers refuge to Libyans

IRELAND has offered to take between six and 10 Libyan refugees in response to a request from the Maltese government and the EU.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter said he told the Maltese the country would be happy to take a large family of up to 10 people.

They would be offered refugee status with full residency if they remained here long enough.

Malta, with a population of less than 500,000, has received many hundreds of refugees fleeing the war in Libya, many of them from Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia.