Johnson was speaking from Rome, where he met with his Italian counterpart, Paolo Gentiloni.
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Italy is on the frontline of Europe’s migrant crisis, taking in more than 400,000 refugees over the past three years, many of them saved from rickety boats pushed out to sea by people smugglers based in north Africa.
In 2015, the European Union launched Operation Sophia, a naval force tasked with catching human smugglers and destroying their vessels.
“I think I’m right in saying we turned back 200,000 migrants, sorry saved, saved 200,000 migrants, so I do think it’s the right approach”, insisted Johnson without specifying which migrants he was referring to. “We have saved 200,000 migrants and turned back 240 boats”, he said after being corrected by another diplomat.
It was not immediately clear in what context the boats mentioned by Johnson were turned back to land.
It is against the law to turn the vessels back after they have entered worldwide waters.
The EU force can not enter Libyan territorial waters without a formal request by the UN-backed Government of National Accord which is trying to extend its shaky authority from Tripoli to the rest of the country.
Some 23,000 irregular migrants arrived in Italy in August, the European Union’s border agency said on Thursday, most crossing the Mediterranean on what has become the main immigration route into Europe. According to a United Nations report released earlier on Thursday, there were at least 200,000 refugees waiting in Libyan ports to make the journey to Europe.
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“Italy remained under steady migratory pressure as 23 000 migrants arrived there in August, close to the number from the same month of previous year”, the statement said, while the agency reported about 25,300 sea arrivals in July.
