THE government must stop shirking its asylum responsibilities, campaigners demanded on Monday as the Prime Minister met his Italian counterpart.

Sir Keir Starmer joined Georgia Meloni in Rome, where he said he was “very interested” in Italy’s efforts to lower migration.

He claimed his government had returned to “British pragmatism” on migration and that he was particularly keen to hear about Ms Meloni’s work to tackle “upstream” issues with migration, rather than her agreement with Albania.

The deal sees migrants who have entered Italy processed in the Balkan country, a scheme similar to the scrapped Tory Rwanda plans.

She said they had discussed the deal, adding: “The UK government has shown great interest in this agreement.”

Ahead of the meeting, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper hinted at a British interest in the deal and insisted it was not the same as the Rwanda plan.

Britain is expected to give some £4 million to an initiative called the Rome Process, an Italian government scheme to tackle the root causes of irregular migration.

Eight people died over the weekend after a boat carrying 53 migrants crashed into rocks off the French coast as they attempted to make their way to Britain.

Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds said: “There should be no question of the UK doing deals to offload its responsibilities onto other countries — not Albania, Rwanda or anywhere else.

“After the Conservative government’s shameful attempt at this, the last thing needed is yet another government pursuing schemes to avoid fulfilling the UK’s comparatively modest refugee obligations rather than showing some leadership and taking responsibility.

“The government should be trying to restore the UK’s battered reputation on refugee issues by repairing an asylum system that’s been deliberately sabotaged by successive home secretaries stretching back years.

“We need safe asylum routes to help end the exploitative practices of people smugglers, and we need a fair and efficient system for processing people’s asylum claims however they arrive.”

Calais Food Collection warned that the survivors of the weekend’s tragedy were held by French border police for over 12 hours without food or water before being released onto the streets.