The populist government is planning use legal means to prevent migrant rescue boats entering Italy's coastal waters, hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini said on Wednesday.
"We are working on a measure to limit the vessels that can enter Italian waters by applying existing laws," Salvini told reporters at the parliament.
"If another boat load of migrants were to reach Italy's coast, I would do exactly what I did with Sea Watch and the Diciotti," Salvini said.
Salvini was referring to the Dutch flagged Sea Watch 3 operated by German NOG Sea Watch which anchored off Italy with 47 migrants on board and a case in August over which he could face trial for crimes including the kidnapping of nearly two hundred migrants stranded aboard the Italian coastguard ship Diciotti who Salvini refused to allow shore in Sicily.
Hundreds of migrants saved in the Mediterranean have been trapped for a week or more in similar standoffs between Italy and other European Union countries since Salvini took office in June and closed the country's ports to rescue ships.
Salvini has vowed that no more migrants will land in Italy unless they are relocated to other EU states and claims that rescue boats are abetting illegal immigration.
