France “will not accept migrants” from the Italian island of Lampedusa, which has been experiencing a large influx of migrants for days, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said today, showing the government’s “determination” on the matter.

“France wants a stable position,” insisted the minister, as a guest on the TF1 network. The case of asylum seekers, for example for political reasons, is certainly different, admitted Darmanen, who however minimized the presence of asylum seekers among the migrants who landed in Lampedusa, saying that the majority of those who reached the Italian island did not escape because they were being persecuted.

“They are not Afghans, they are not Syrians,” he insisted.

“By admitting more people we are not going to stop a flow, which obviously affects the integration capabilities we have,” he continued.

“However, we told our Italian friends that we were ready to help them return people to countries with which we have good diplomatic relations,” he added, citing Ivory Coast and Senegal.

The French minister made the remarks the day after his visit to Rome, to his counterpart, as Italy faced an acceleration in the arrival of migrants on the island of Lampedusa, located between Tunisia and Sicily.

Between Monday and Wednesday last week, nearly 8,500 people, more than the entire population of Lampedusa, arrived on 199 boats, according to the United Nations migration agency.

The French interior minister also announced that he had decided to “reinforce” checks on the Franco-Italian border: the number of police and gendarmes tasked with this task would increase from 500 to 700, he said.