"Rather than letting them sit around doing nothing – make them [the migrants] work."
In addition to the work proposal, Alfano said that the government was seeking "an equal distribution [of migrants] among the countries of Europe and the regions of Italy."
Alfano's comments come amid growing unrest about the growing numbers of migrants in Italy, which is often their first port of call after crossing the Mediterranean Sea from unstable regions in the Middle East and North Africa.
Italy reported 170,000 migrant arrivals in 2014, a fourfold rise on the previous year. The projected arrival of as many as 200,000 migrants to Italy this year creates a "very difficult" situation, said Mario Morcone, head of the Department of Immigration in the Interior Ministry.
In the past week, more than 9,000 migrants arrived in Italy. Last month officials said the numbers of migrants who entered the country in the first two months of this year rose 43 percent in January and February of 2015.
On Monday the Italian coastguard said more than 6,000 migrants were rescued from unsafe boats off the coast of Libya and brought to the country's southern ports after people smugglers took advantage of calm seas and mild temperatures to send illegal immigrants to Europe. The bodies of ten migrants were also recovered.
