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More than 12,000 landed in Italy last week alone as the scramble to reach the Continent from Libya shows no sign of slowing. The onslaught showed just how much of a disaster the EU immigration policy was, said UKIP home affairs spokeswoman Jane Collins. The “unsustainable” influx has seen Libya – a gateway to Europe for thousands of sub-Saharan Africans – threaten to shut its ports and send back boatloads of asylum seekers.

GETTY/EPA EU officials will hold crisis talks as number of people crossing from Libya spirals

Germany, France and Italy will meet for top-level discussions after the EU was told to urgently revise its asylum rules and become part of the solution not the problem. Critics said the European border Frontex should end its rescue missions in the Mediterranean. They act as a ferry service for tens of thousands trying to make it to the Continent. The emergency has sent shockwaves across the bloc with the number of economic migrants this year set to break records.

GETTY More than 12,000 migrants landed in Italy last week

This crisis will not come to an end unless boats from Libya are towed back Independent MEP Steven Woolfe

Independent MEP Steven Woolfe said: “This crisis will not come to an end unless boats from Libya are towed back. Seeking to mitigate the problem will make little difference. “Rescuing the boats and taking them back to mainland Europe only encourages more to make the perilous journey which has taken so many lives.” The summer surge comes as figures show 60,228 migrants arrived in Italy by sea in the first five months of the year.

This year more than 58,000 migrants have arrived in Italy and 1,569 have died Thu, June 29, 2017 An estimated 230,000 refugees and migrants will arrive in Italy this year as numbers of refugees and migrants attempting the dangerous central mediterranean crossing from Libya to Italy continues to rise since the same time last year Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 11 Refugees and migrants wait in a small rubber boat to be rescued off Lampedusa, Italy

vUN figures show the number making the perilous crossing on dinghies from Libya is now set to exceed the 200,000 recorded last year. In the time this year some 9,900 migrants managed to reach the Greek islands, mainly from Syria and Iraq. An upsurge has sparked fears of a return to the chaos of 2015 when the number seeking asylum stood at its highest in 25 years. The situation is so dire the Italian government has given Maurizio Massari, its ambassador to the EU, a mandate to seek a “drastic revision of EU asylum procedures”.

GETTY Germany, France and Italy will meet for top-level discussions

One suggestion is to refuse boats not carrying the Italian flag permission to dock at ports like Sicily or Calabria. Interior Minister Marco Minniti said: “If the only ports refugees are taken to are Italian, something is not working. We are under enormous pressure.” Ms Collins, of UKIP, said: “It seems the Italian government has finally woken up to the disaster of the EU’s common migration policy. The only solution is for Frontex to stop being a transfer service for people traffickers and turn the boats back from whence they came.”

GETTY MEP Steven Woolfe has called for boats to be toed back