A mayor from Italy's far-right Lega Nord has posted a video in which she claims there were "no migrants" in Malta.
Filmed through a smartphone outside Auberge de Castille, Susanna Ceccardi said: "Walking around this island's streets, you won't see a single migrant. I've been here one day now and people I spoke to here tell me you won't see any migrants, simply because Europe has emptied the barrel of migration onto Italy."
She blames her country's leftist parties of fuelling the "business" of migration in Italy, insisting that her party leader Matteo Salvini was destroying the problem together with the "good life" led by migrants in Italy.
Over the past month, Italy and Malta have clashed over who should host migrants rescued in the Mediterranean.
Sono a Malta, nella capitale La Valletta. In giro ci sono Zero immigrati a bighellonard come siamo abituati a vederne nelle nostre città.
— Susanna Ceccardi (@SusannaCeccardi) July 18, 2018
Per forza! Li ha presi tutti il Pd. Ma ora la pacchia è davvero finita!! https://t.co/Hh4TJNdMln
"We're now punching our fists at the tables of Europe as well as Rome's," says the mayor who once rallied against civil unions by saying "we won't take our kids to the Gay Pride". The mayor from Cascina, Tuscany, said she is in Malta to learn English.
Malta received 1,616 asylum claims in 2017, despite a drastic drop in boat people arrivals. Several of the claims came from migrants travelling from Italy.
Read: Is Malta really receiving no migrants?