Charity ships that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean are giving Islamic extremists a greater chance of slipping into Europe, Italy's interior minister Marco Minniti said on Tuesday.
"NGOs consider it their priority to save people at sea rather than guaranteeing the national security of the country that takes in the migrants," Minniti told Italian daily Il Foglio in an interview.
Previously, when all Mediterranean rescue operations were being carried out by navy vessels, the proportion of suspected extremists among the migrants was "inevitably low", Minniti stated.
"Whoever sought to target our national security would think twice before boarding a migrant boat that would be rescued by navy ships," Minniti said.
But private charity ships are now carrying out over one-third of Mediterranean migrant rescue operations, against 28 percent by the Italian coastguard, 11 percent by the European Union borders agency Frontex and 9 percent by the EU's Sofia anti-smuggling operation, he said.
"When you have numerous private vessels operating, any serious country takes all necessary measures to combine saving lives with national security and the unwavering objective of fighting human trafficking," Minniti stated.
A total 34 percent of rescue operations in the Mediterranean were carried out by NGOs and private rescue teams in the first four months of this year. But critics allege the charity rescue ships are fuelling illegal immigration and some claim they are in cahoots with trafficking gangs.
Islamic extremists are also stealing into Italy aboard the packed migrants boats, some rightwing politicians and observers have claimed.
Italy's centre-left government has introduced controversial code of conduct for NGOs working in the Mediterranean including a ban on making phone calls or firing flares, which it claims could signal to human traffickers when it is safe to send a boat to sea.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned Italy's new rules in a joint statement, saying the measures will severely restrict the ability of humanitarian and aid groups to carry out their work, putting migrant lives at further risk.
The United Nations' children's charity UNICEF on Monday said the new code of conduct put many lives at risk, especially those of minors.
More than 85,000 refugees and migrants have reached Italy by boat so far this year, interior ministry figures showed last week, while over 2,000 have perished in the Mediterranean, according to data from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Italy - where 85 percent of Mediterranean migrants have arrived - has threatened to close its ports to charity vessels carrying out rescues off Libya's coast.
It has also said it may issue some 200,000 migrants with European Union Schengen visas, shifting the burden of the unrelenting migration crisis to other European nations.
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