British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to strike a deal with Italy to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean and return them to North African countries.
The newspaper said on Friday that Sunak had sent Simon Kees, cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, to Italy in mid-June for two days of meetings with senior Italian government officials to work on a deal.
The Telegraph quoted a British government source as saying: "If we want to succeed in tackling the issue of irregular migration, we have to deal with the issue from the source, as well as focus on small boats."
Britain and Italy signed a memorandum of understanding in April to tackle irregular migration as part of the Strategic Migration Partnership.
A British government spokesman said: "We are working closely with Italy and other European partners to stop irregular migration and tackle people-smuggling gangs operating across borders. This is a common challenge."
Flow volume
According to government figures, Britain recorded a record 45,2022 people coming to its territory in small boats across the English Channel in 11, mostly from France. London said more than 2023,<> people had entered its territory since the start of <>.
Sunak, from the ruling Conservative Party, is focused on stopping the arrival of boats, making the issue one of his five priorities during his premiership, but he is criticised by some members of his own party and the British general public for not acting fast enough to stop irregular migration.
Talk of Britain seeking a deal with Italy comes at a time when the 27 member states of the European Union disagreed on Friday over immigration and asylum policies, after Poland and Hungary remained opposed to plans to distribute migrants in the bloc more fairly, following a two-day summit (Thursday and Friday) in the Belgian capital Brussels.