We’ve thwarted an ‘invasion’ of migrants say the Italians

ITALY’S firebrand deputy prime minister claimed to have prevented an ‘invasion’ yesterday by refusing to allow a stranded migrant boat to enter the country.

Matteo Salvini’s comments about the German charity vessel threaten to inflame tensions over the EU’s migration crisis.

The row was only temporarily diffused when Malta said the Lifeline boat carrying 224 people would be allowed to dock there after spending days at sea.

The offer of refuge came as Spain warned it was not willing to become a ‘rescue organisation for all of Europe’ after welcoming another rescue boat carrying 629 migrants that was turned away by Mr Salvini earlier this month.

Mr Salvini, Italy’s new interior minister from the hard-Right League party, has taken a hardline approach to charity rescue boats operating in the Med, threatening to impound those he accuses of working with people smugglers.

He wrote on Twitter yesterday: ‘That makes two. After the NGO Aquarius was sent to Spain, now it’s the turn of the Lifeline NGO, which will go to Malta and this outlaw ship will finally be Getting tough: Cadets posing as migrants are hemmed in by security forces yesterday impounded.’ Mr Salvini boasted ‘stop invasion’ alongside the message. Italy is the main migration route from Africa into Europe – but Mr Salvini’s incendiary rhetoric comes despite an 85 per cent reduction in arrivals this year. The migrants aboard Lifeline will be shared among Malta, Italy, Spain and France in a choreographed move to ease EU tensions over migration. Malta said the Lifeline’s captain would be investigated for ignoring instructions from Italian authorities regarding the rescue. Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the country would accept its share of migrants ‘with the hope other European countries would do the same’.

His government is pushing to overhaul EU rules allowing refugees to claim asylum in their first country of entry, so Italy is not forced to handle the majority.

EU leaders are due to hold talks about migration at a Brussels summit tomorrow.