If a someone arrives from Tunisia, which is not a country at war, they must be sent back as part of a European project," Di Maio told Italian website Tpi.it.
"Repatriations are currently taking place but they are too few and we need Europe to people back as they arrive - not one or two hundred ever two weeks," Di Maio underlined.
Over 11,000 people arrived in Italy year from Tunisia amid an economic crisis in the North African country. Tunisia has signed repatriation agreements with Italy allowing to send back scores of illegal migrants aboard twice-weekly flights.
Interior minister Luciana Lamorgese faced opposition calls to resign last week after it emerged that the suspect in the 6th October gruesome Nice Cathedral attack, Tunisian jihadist Brahim Aoussaoui, entered France after arriving in Italy in September and being served with an expulsion order earlier in October.