Malta will start receiving migrants again if Silvio Berlusconi’s party is elected to power in March, the media mogul said.

Not all migrants saved in the Mediterranean will disembark in Italy as Malta would have to accept them too, he said in an interview on Rai Tre.

“There is no doubt that migrants who risk their life and cross the Mediterranean have to be saved. However, we will not accept that all disembark in Italy. Those saved close to Malta will have to be taken to and disembark in Malta,” the former Italian prime minister and leader of Forza Italia said on Rai Tre.

He criticised an agreement made by the incumbent centre-left government, through which Italy accepted to take all migrants saved in the Mediterranean.

“It is not on that we continue to shoulder all the burden alone. Other countries that have responsibility for search and rescue will also have to share in the burden,” he said.

Until 2011, when Berlusconi shared power with the anti-immigration movement Lega Nord, Malta and Italy had clashes on who should take irregular immigrants saved in Malta’s search and rescue area.