The leaders of Italy and the United Kingdom have agreed to tackle irregular migration to Europe, pledging to intensify cooperation in the fight against human trafficking.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held the talks in Rome.
Mr Sunak also delivered a speech at a gathering of Ms Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party.
The two leaders were also joined by Albanian Premier Edi Rama, seen as a key ally in efforts to manage the rise in migrant’ arrivals from North Africa to European shores.
The British Prime Minister says it is up to individual governments to decide who can enter their countries - not criminal gangs.
"The cost of accommodating these people will anger our citizens, who won't understand why their money should have to be spent on dealing with the consequences of this evil trade. It will destroy the public's faith, not just in us as politicians, but in our very systems of government. Why? Because it is fundamental, it is a fundamental tenet of sovereignty, that it is us who should decide who comes to our countries and not criminal gangs."
Italy and Britain reportedly agreed to fund a joint project encouraging assisted voluntary repatriations - of migrants stranded in Tunisia.
Tunisia has become a departure country for many migrants trying to reach Europe.
The Italians government says any repatriations would be in line with existing United Nations projects, without giving further information.
The number of people intercepted by the Tunisian authorities has risen to almost 70,000 in the first 11 months of 2023, compared to just over 31,000 in the same period of 2022 - causing anti-immigrant sentiment in Tunisia.
According to the British Prime Minister, the aim of a new agreement is to prevent more lives being lost at sea, as well as to combat criminal human trafficking gangs.
"Criminal gangs will find ever cheaper ways to ply their evil trade. They will exploit our humanity. And they think nothing of putting people's lives at risk when they put them in these boats at sea. And our enemies will also see that we are unable to deal with this and then they will so increasingly use migration as a weapon deliberately driving people to our shores to try to destabilise our societies. So if we do not tackle this problem, the numbers will only grow, it will overwhelm our countries, and our capacity to help those who actually need our help the most."
The three leaders agreed on the need to manage irregular migration through further cooperation between the three countries.
Mr Rama says a new agreement should come into force soon.
"By March is the maximum limit but I believe and I am confident that the decision will be taken much earlier because it is a very important agreement between two states and the two governments need to know whether they can go ahead or not without losing too much time.”
But Prime Minister Sunak says that the work to deal with illegal immigration has already started.
"Now the government I lead has shown that deterrence works. In January of this year, we signed an agreement with Albania to show that it is safe. And since then we have removed 5,000 people and arrivals from Albania to the UK have fallen by 90 per cent. If people know that they won't get to stay, then they won't come. And that must be our aim that everyone knows that if they come to Italy or to Britain illegally, then they simply won't get to stay.”
The World Bank estimates global warming could displace 143 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America by 2050.
Though most will stay in or near their home countries, a large number of those coming from Africa and west Asia will head for Europe.
Many people die attempting to make the journey to Europe.
In recent days at least 61 migrants died off the coast of Lybia when their boat capsized.
