Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni vowed on Tuesday to stop migrants without the right to asylum in Europe from departing Africa via the Mediterranean. 

"This government wants to stop illegal departures and break up human trafficking," Meloni told parliament, saying the right to asylum would still be respected. 

This was her first address to parliament since being sworn in last week.

Naval blockade

Meloni heads a far-right coalition which made fighting migration one of its main campaign promises. It had suggested during the campaign that a European military mission could be launched in agreement with the Libyan authorities to forcibly stop people from fleeing towards Italy.

Earlier in her address, Meloni, leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, said she had "never felt sympathy or closeness to undemocratic regimes... including Fascism".

Her government, the most far-right in Italy since World War II, would "not deflect an inch" from democratic values and "will fight any form of racism, anti-Semitism, political violence, discrimination," Meloni said.

Meloni insisted that Italy would "continue to be a reliable partner of NATO in supporting Ukraine", amid concerns over the pro-Russian stance of her coalition partners.

"Giving in to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's blackmail on energy would not solve the problem, it would exacerbate it by paving the way for further demands and blackmail, with future energy increases even greater than those we have experienced in recent months," she said.