Italy’s hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini on Sunday warned that Italy would not become “the refugee camp of Europe” as he continued to attack France for dumping illegal migrants over the border.

Mr Salvini used social media to say he would not be taking lessons from Emmanuel Macron, the French President, or Christophe Castaner, his new interior minister, whom he dubbed “Macron and friends”.

He tweeted: "The French interior minister accuses me of 'systematic refusal to every type of opening'. Are these the lessons from Macron and his friends who 'unload' migrants in Italian forests at night? No thanks."

He then issued an invitation to his French counterpart to visit Rome and rebuild the testy bilateral relationship.

The minister said Italy would continue to patrol the borders as he dispatched extra police to Claviere, the Italian alpine town that borders France, after three illegal migrants were dumped there by French gendarmes there over a week ago.

"Italy is no longer fearful, resigned to being the refugee camp of Europe and to taking orders from Brussels and Berlin,” Mr Salvini said on Sunday.