More than 86,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Italy this year

Senior Italian government figures have threatened to allow 200,000 migrants who have reached its shores to travel across Europe by exploiting a little-known Brussels directive as the country struggles to cope with a huge rise in refugees fleeing north Africa.

A minister and a senator are plotting to issue migrants with temporary EU visas in a move that has been described as a “nuclear option” for solving Italy’s refugee crisis.

Paolo Gentiloni, the prime minister, is livid that the rest of Europe has refused to take its fair share of migrants and that they have closed ports to rescue ships as the number of refugees attempting the treacherous crossing from Libya to the Continent has surged.

Mario Giro, the deputy foreign minister, and Luigi Manconi,