"We must all work together to reaffirm the principle that you only enter Europe legally and therefore in a condition of total safety and security," she said.

She called on the EU to "develop and boost legal migration channels, split between those who are entitled to protection and those who intend to enter for work reasons," as well as ''fighting without hesitancy the criminal clans that fuel mass illegal immigration".

Meloni said that without concrete intervention by the EU, starting in the coming weeks and for the whole year, migrant pressure will be unprecedented, given the difficult context that strikes vast zones of the planet.

Italy has a moral duty to avert more migrant disasters, Meloni said.

"The shipwreck that occurred a few days ago a few metres from the Crotone coastline, in which dozens of people died, including many children, has shocked us all,'', she said.

"Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case.

"In Italy for many years we have been mourning tragedies like the one last Sunday in which those who try to reach our shores in makeshift boats lose their lives at sea.

"It is our duty, morally even more than politically, to do everything to prevent misfortunes like these from happening again."

Meloni called for urgent funding for the countries of migrant origin to aid development there and stop people having to leave in search of better lives.

The migrant issue has returned to the forefront of international politics with a major shipwreck off Calabria that is thought to have claimed over 100 lives.

Italy's foreign population stood at just over six million at the start of 2022, marking a rise of 88,000 over the previous year, according to the 28th annual report on migration presented by the ISMU Foundation in Milan on Wednesday.

Irregular immigrants accounted for 8.4 per cent of the total foreign population, down from 519,000 at the start of 2021 to 506,000 last year.

The drop is due to progress made in the amnesty for undeclared foreign workers launched by Italy in 2020, the ISMU report said.

Approximately 242,000 permits of stay were issued in 2021 according to ISMU estimates, more than twice the number issued in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic stemmed the number of arrivals.

Roughly 6 in 10 foreigners came from outside the European Union, with the largest population groups as of January 1,  2022 represented by Moroccans (408,000), Albanians (397,000), Chinese (291,000) and Ukrainians (230,000).

Sea arrivals to Italy in 2022 rose by 55.8 per cent to 105,129 over the previous year, with 20,542 arrivals coming from Egypt, 18,148 from Tunisia and 14,982 from Bangladesh.

Locally, Minister for Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, said the government intends to do more to aid legal immigration.

“This year will work to help around 500,000 people enter legally," Lollobrigida, speaking at a press conference in Brussels, said.

“This could be organised, with multilateral or bilateral agreement supporting legal immigration.”

The minister denied there was a specific plan to achieve this.

“I’ve read some news reports according to which I have announced some government plan to permit entry to 500,000 people.

“In reality there is no set plan.

“The figure given by me simply reflects the number of entrance requests we’ve received across a number of industry sectors.”

The minister used the opportunity to reiterate the government’s position on illegal immigration.

“Combatting illegal immigration is all the more necessary, specifically because it is the enemy of legal immigration,” he said.

“We’ve welcomed more migrants than anyone else, and it’s time we started talking about this issue at a European level.

“It’s not possible for one country to bear the burden alone.

“We are not against migration we are against illegality.”

ANSA