Foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi met UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet late Tuesday in New York to discuss the "ungrounded" accusations levelled against Italy over its treatment of migrants, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The meeting therefore offered the opportunity, on the one hand, to clarify the reasons why Italy considers the allegations made to be ungrounded and, on the other hand, to share the recognition of the considerable efforts made by Italy in rescuing and assisting the migrants crossing the Mediterranean," the statement said.
Moavero's meeting with Bachelet took place at an event on the death penalty co-organised by Italy during the 73rd United Nations General Assembly, according to the statement.
In a maiden address to the UN Human Rights Council on 10 September, Bachelet said the world body was planning to send officials to Italy to investigate "reports of a sharp increase in acts of violence and racism against migrants, people of African descent and Roma."
A UN team would also be despatched to Austria to probe similar reports, Bachelet, a former Chilean president, said.
Bachelet's comments sparked the ire of Italy's hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini, who bemoaned a lack of European cooperation over the more than 700,000 migrants had landed in the country since 2014.
"So we don't accept lessons from anyone, least of all the UN," he said.
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