Italy's new minister promises a harsh crackdown on immigrants.

Reuters - Italy will no longer be "Europe's refugee camp," said newly appointed Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, promising tough action to reduce the arrival of immigrants and send back those who have already arrived.

Salvini, leader of the far-right League party and deputy prime minister of the Eurosceptic coalition that took power last week, has made curbing immigration the flagship policy of his party, whose popularity is growing rapidly in opinion polls.

On Sunday, two days after the government was sworn in, Salvini traveled to Sicily, the main port of entry for the more than 600 immigrants who have arrived on Italian shores from North Africa since 2014.

"The party's over" for immigrants in Italy, he said before visiting a reception center in the port of Pozzallo, where newcomers by boat are registered and identified with photos and fingerprints.

The League said that most immigrants are not entitled to refugee status, that their country cannot afford to help them, and that by accepting low wages they worsen the working conditions of Italians.

Salvini maintained the pressure on Monday, saying in a radio interview that Italy "cannot be turned into a refugee camp" and vowing to push for Rome's partners to obtain more assistance from the European Union to deal with the problem.

"It is clear and obvious that Italy has been abandoned, now we have to look at the facts," said Salvini when asked about comments by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Europe needs a new approach to immigration.

Salvini, who wants to open a new detention and deportation center for immigrants in each Italian region, later tweeted: "Either Europe lends us a hand to make our country safe, or we will choose other methods."

Italy has become the main route for economic migrants and asylum seekers to Europe. Hundreds of thousands of them make the dangerous crossing from North Africa every year, and thousands die at sea. The other main route, from Turkey to Greece, was largely closed after the arrival of more than a million people in 2015.

After at least 48 migrants died over the weekend when their boat sank off the Tunisian coast, Salvini said there was no reason for people to be fleeing Tunisia, which is "a free and democratic country."