The Italian Cabinet has been busy discussing its new draft law on migration. Amid the discussions, Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi flew to the Libyan capital Tripoli to talk to his Libyan counterparts about migration.

According to reports, the Italian authorities are considering a possible naval blockade, the return of the 'Albania system' with the possibility, "where there are agreements with safe third countries, to transfer people to other places to carry out asylum procedures," as well as issuing tighter rules on family reunification.

On February 9, Piantedosi flew to Tripoli to meet with his Libyan counterpart Emad Mustafa Trabelsi and Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.

In the upcoming days, he may also be meeting with Khalifa Haftar, a Libyan military strongman and commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) -- the LNA has dominated the eastern region of Cyrenaica since 2014.

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Measures in the migration draft law

One of the focal points of the bill under preparation is the implementation of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, which will come into force in June.

The bill will include several regulations cut out of a security draft law that passed last week.

Among the measures under discussion is a 'naval blockade', meaning the possibility to stop -- for a maximum of 30 days, with extensions possible for up to six months -- the crossing of the limit of territorial waters, "in the case of serious threat to public order or national security, understood as a concrete risk of acts of terrorism or infiltration by terrorists," as well as "exceptional migratory pressure to the point of jeopardising safe border management."

In these cases, there will be the possibility to take the migrants to "third countries different from those to which the migrants belong or are arriving with which Italy has signed specific agreements."

Tighter regulations on family reunification are also expected to enter into the bill, while it is unclear whether the so-called 'Save Almasri' regulation, which was in the security bill and called for the "handing over to the state to which the individual belongs of a person dangerous to national security or for reasons of risk to international relations."

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'Dialogue with Libya essential to manage flows'

During his visit to Tripoli, Piantedosi underscored that "constant dialogue and cooperation with the Libyan authorities is a key element to deal in an effective and responsible manner with shared challenges connected mainly with migration management."

"Italy," he added, "will continue to support, in collaboration with the EU and other international partners, initiatives oriented towards the consolidation of cooperation with special reference to programs of assisted voluntary returns and initiatives for the control of land and sea borders."

The visit was designed to "foster bilateral cooperation between two countries," the Libyan interior minister stressed.

Italian interior ministry data show a drop in arrivals via sea in the first 40 days of 2026: 1,813, equal to a 56.38 percent drop on the 4,156 during the same period the previous year.

There was also a drop on the Libya route, which remains in any case the one seeing the largest number of arrivals.

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