Malta could be on the verge of an immigration crisis as 800,000 would-be migrants are planning to cross over to Europe in the next few months, Italian media report today.

The number is more or less double the size of Malta’s population.

Italian authorities are saying that Italy could host up to 50,000 such migrants; the numbers in Malta are much smaller than that.

The Italian interior Ministry said it is preparing to deal with the emergency but "the reception system is collapsing" warns the central director of immigration, John Pinto.

The localities where Italians are hosting migrants are annoyed by their growing numbers, as are Maltese residents too.

"Surely the operation Mare Nostrum,” Pinto said, “has given excellent results, although it has increased its departures from Libya."

"In Libya,” he added, “there is the perception of absolute lack of control and this could see a substantial increase in the number of illegal immigrants. In Libya there is no a prime minister, there is no government team, there are no ministers,” he said.

After the tragedy of 3 October in Lampedusa , Pinto added, no other migrants on their way to Italy from north Africa have died.  

Rescue operations are taking place at 30-40 miles from the Libyan coast, but the criminal organizations engaged in human trafficking know this and are resorting to more boats which are however of inferior quality.

The Italian media report that the price of the crossing has gone down rapidly. They do not need to put too much fuel and food because they know that the journey will be a maximum of 10-12 hours and large sums organizations are profiting from this traffic, he said.

Pinto belies that "an exit strategy from the Mare Nostrum should be put into place. We need to rethink the organization of the patrol at sea."