A global charity run by David Miliband has told Keir Starmer to abandon Italy's “expensive and ultimately ineffective” migration deterrent measures if the UK is to stop people drowning in the Channel.

The former Labour foreign secretary is president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which stated that the UK government should instead provide refugees with access to safe routes so they are not compelled to make perilous crossings.

A few hours prior to the intervention, Starmer had commended Giorgia Meloni, the hard-right Italian prime minister, for her "remarkable progress" in reducing irregular migration across the Mediterranean.

“You’ve made remarkable progress working with countries along migration routes as equals to address the drivers of migration at source and to tackle the gangs,” Starmer said at a joint press conference.

Meloni said Starmer had shown “great interest” in Italy’s deal to process 3,000 asylum claimants in Albania, and brushed aside claims that Italy’s policies breach international human rights laws.

Khusbu Patel, the acting executive director of the IRC UK, said that Starmer should instead open safe routes. “Today’s discussions in Italy take place after a weekend that saw at least eight lives lost in the Channel, just days after the deadliest crossing this year.

“These tragic incidents serve as a reminder that instead of prioritising costly and ultimately ineffective deterrence policies, the new government should focus on solutions that work, such as scaling up safe routes and investing in our asylum system.

“This is the only way to create a system that is effective and compassionate, and one where people are not forced to risk their lives making treacherous journeys in the first place,” he said.

The statement, an unusual move by the IRC, comes after the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Amnesty International, and the Refugee Council denounced the Starmer government's endorsement of Meloni's policies.

Once considered Tony Blair's political heir, 59-year-old Miliband was appointed foreign secretary by Gordon Brown, making him the youngest to hold the post in thirty years.

In 2013, he gave up his seat as an MP to accept a position at the IRC's New York headquarters. When his younger brother Ed, the current environment minister, narrowly defeated him for the Labour leadership in 2010, his friends remarked at the time that he had taken action to put an end to the "permanent pantomime" surrounding their political connection.