Italy’s hardline interior minister said 1,000 migrants hoping for rescue off the coast of Libya should be picked up by the Libyan coast guard rather than European NGOs, as the standoff in the Mediterranean intensified.

Matteo Salvini said the asylum seekers should be sent straight back to Libya, despite humanitarian organisations saying they face rape, torture, beatings and forced labour.

“Another 1,000 migrants in rubber dinghies? It’s right that the Libyan authorities intervene, without having NGO boats interrupt and bother them,” he wrote on Twitter, which has become one of his favoured modes of communication since the populist government was sworn in three weeks ago.

Humanitarian organisations should know, he added, that “Italian ports are and will remain closed,” to NGO vessels that rescue asylum seekers at sea.

A Spanish NGO, Proactiva Open Arms, said Italy had declined its help despite the fact that there were seven boats in need of rescue off the coast of Libya.