Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni pledged on Tuesday to "stop illegal immigration" from Africa and end human trafficking in the Mediterranean, at a time when a rescue organization warned that more than 1,300 people are currently stranded in the Mediterranean.

Meloni stressed on Tuesday her government's desire to "stop illegal immigration (from Africa) and stressed that it was time to prevent smugglers from being "the ones who decide who enters" Italy.

Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Piantidosi said he could prevent humanitarian ships from bringing rescued migrants to Italy, reviving a controversial 2019 policy.

He added that the ships were "not in line with the spirit of European and Italian regulations" on border security, noting that he was considering whether to ban their entry into Italian waters.

Piantedosi has close ties with new Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, a Meloni ally, and they may unite to stop rescue charities that the right sees as a "pull factor" for migrants.

Salvini, who leads the anti-immigration League, is currently on trial for preventing migrants from arriving at sea in 2019 during his tenure as interior minister.

His current powers as Minister of Transportation include controlling the Coast Guard.

stuck in the middle

Earlier in the day, Alarm Phone, a non-governmental organization that runs a hotline for migrants in difficulty, alerted that it believed two ships carrying more than 1,300 people had encountered problems in transit.

She confirmed that she had received a call for help from a "large wooden boat that left Tobruk in Libya."

🆘 We just spoke to them again.

Now we believe there are in fact 2 boats that left together from #Libya.

We were told that one carries about 700, the second about 650 people.

Reportedly, a person died and engines aren't working anymore.

A huge rescue operation is needed!

— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) October 25, 2022

The organization said on Twitter that the boat "is now in the search and rescue areas of Malta and Italy," referring to the maritime search and rescue areas that fall under the responsibilities of Rome and Valletta.

In a subsequent tweet, the organization indicated that it believed that there were two boats that had left Libya, adding that "one of them is carrying about 700 people and the second is about 650 people."

And she stated that "a person died and the engines were no longer working," and called for an "emergency rescue operation."

In a separate context, the Italian Coast Guard recovered the bodies of two one-month-old twins who died on Monday during a transit trip from Tunisia to Italy, according to Italian media reports.