Fifty per cent increase in migrant boat-people arriving in Italy

The number of migrants crossing from Africa to Italy by boat rose by 50 per cent this year compared with last year, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said, defending Rome's policy of fast-track deportations.

In a letter to yesterday's edition of La Stampa daily, Mr Pisanu said Italy, which has a pact with Libya to repatriate illegal immigrants, respected international laws and he criticised other European countries for failing to act to stem human trafficking.

"I have seen at first hand the slowness and the reluctance of many European countries to confront the problem," said Mr Pisanu, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.

Up to Thursday, 15,327 people arrived on Italy's shores or were picked up at sea compared with 9,959 in the same period last year.

Around 10,000 of them landed at or were found near Lampedusa, Italy's southern-most island that is just 182 kilometres off the Tunisian coast and has become the frontier point for the country's fight against illegal immigration.

Human rights groups, the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR and members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have criticised Italy's handling of migrants, both for its pact with Libya and poor conditions at its holding centres.

French Socialist MEP Martine Roure said she believed Italy was guilty of human rights abuses at its holding centre for migrants on Lampedusa - a claim Italy has rejected.

No one knows how many migrants die trying to cross the Mediterranean to countries like Italy, Malta and Spain, hoping to start a new life in the European Union.

Three died and 14 were missing when their boat sank near the Spanish Canary Islands on Sunday. Spain has also been fending off waves of migrants trying to break into its North African enclaves at Ceuta and Melilla in recent days.

Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said the EU needed to design a plan to reduce poverty in Africa to stem the flow of migrants.

Mr Pisanu also said greater international cooperation was needed, both to increase policing of the Mediterranean and to persuade transit countries to do more to stop migrants setting off to cross the Mediterranean.