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A ship of Germany’s charity Lifeline rescued more than 350 people in Libyan waters on Wednesday night before heading towards the Italian coasts. But Mr Salvini looks set to maintain the hard line against immigration and the non-for-profit associations rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, as he denied Lifeline the right to dock. The Lega leader accused the charity, whose boat displays the Dutch flag, of breaching the his new anti-immigration ruling. He said: “You showed strength not listening to both the Italian and Libyan Coast Guards?

Boats of these presumed NGOs won’t touch the Italian soils anymore. I’m tired of been made fun of Matteo Salvini

“Well, now you will bring these people to The Netherlands. “Boats of these presumed NGOs won’t touch the Italian soils anymore. “I’m tired of been made fun of.” And on Facebook he added: “This is the latest serious violation from a NGO boat in Libyan waters. Enough!”

Matteo Salvini turned away another NGO boat carrying migrants from Libyan waters

On a Facebook Live earlier today he showed a letter sent by the Italian Foreign Ministry to the embassy of The Netherlands on June 16, where the government asked for an explanation on the activity of Lifeline. But, Mr Salvini said, Rome never heard back from the embassy. The latest stir between NGO boats and the anti-immigration interior minister follows Mr Salvini’s outburst against charities “and do-gooders” last night. Saying 800 people have died at sea while trying to get to Europe since January this year, he argued their deaths "weigh on the conscience of the traffickers and the do-gooders".

More than 500 migrants arrived to Italy on June 19

He also called on Europe to change its border policy to cut immigration, threatening that if Italy’s demands weren’t listened to, Rome would “renegotiate” its financial commitments to the bloc. And Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte may not attend this weekend’s emergency meeting in Brussels with Germany and France as Rome has accused the EU of ignoring its concerns over unchecked immigration to help Angela Merkel keep her leadership in Germany. The interior minister issued a new policy regarding the arrival of immigrants from Africa two weeks ago. In a bid to clamp down on the number of arrivals from the Mediterranean, Mr Salvini ruled that only ships of the Italian Navy or commercial boats from Italy can carry immigrants rescued in the sea.

Migrant crisis: Key locations before and after Tue, April 4, 2017 In these composite images, a comparison has been made between a scene at a key location during the height of the 2015 migrant crisis last year and the view there now Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 10 Aid workers help migrants up the shore after making the crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos on November 16, 2015 in Sikaminias, Greece