On Monday, Premier Giorgia Meloni said that her government has no intention of softening its tough stance on migrants.
"There has been talk of a change of course by the government (on migrants)," Meloni said in a video posted to Facebook.
“Absolutely not. The government does not intend to change its position.
"Our position remains absolutely the same: you don't enter Italy illegally, you only enter legally.
"We want to combat human trafficking, illegal entries and deaths at sea. We do not want in any way to make things easy for human traffickers."
Sworn in this past October, Meloni's executive has sought to discourage NGO-run search-and-rescue ships from docking in Italy.
In some instances, it initially denied these ships permission to enter Italian waters, which led to tension with France, after the Ocean Viking ship ended up having to dock in Toulon.
In some more recent cases, NGO SAR ships have however been assigned ports of safety in Italy, including German NGO Sea Watch 4 operated migrant rescue ship Humanity 1, which was reportedly assigned the port of Bari last week with 261 migrants on board.
