Migration is "a structural issue for the planet" which host countries cannot stop but must manage to avert a populist backlist, Italy's interior minister Marco Minniti said on Tuesday.
"Migrant flows existed in the past, they exist today and will exist in the future. They cannot be halted and must be managed, also because emergencies fuel populism," Minniti told Italy's Capital Radio.
Italy - the main gateway to Europe for migrants - forged its own response to the crisis by cutting the number of arrivals "without building fences" and initially "with little help from the European Union", he said.
"'Italy has rolled out its vision for managing migration - alone at first, with little help from the EU," he said.
"The mechanism is to end the emergency by reducing the number of migrants arriving in our country and without building fences."
Minniti said the number of migrant landings has fallen for the eighth consecutive month in Italy - where over 600,000 people have arrived since 2014.
Cooperating with Libya's authorities and local power-brokers to combat human trafficking, while offering the chance of asylum for people fleeing conflict, is central to the Italian government's approach to migration, he stated.
"Whoever is escaping war must arrive via humanitarian channels aboard monthly flights. We must stamp out lawlessness and build the rule of law," Minniti concluded.
