Sir Keir Starmer has hailed Italy's "dramatic" reduction in migrants risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean to reach the southern European country.
The Prime Minister stressed that the fall of around two thirds in the number of migrants embarking on this sea route looks to be the result of "upstream" work.
Sir Keir, who had flown to Rome for talks with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, also did not rule out an Italian-style asylum claims’ processing system in Albania.
Asked how the UK could replicate Italy's Albania deal, the Prime Minister told broadcasters in Rome: "I'm here to have discussions, here at this co-ordination centre and with the Prime Minister (Giorgia Meloni) about how we deal with unlawful migration.
"Here there's been some quite dramatic reductions. So I want to understand how that came about.
"It looks as though that's down to the upstream work that's been done in some of the countries where people are coming from."
He added: "I've long believed, by the way, that prevention and stopping people traveling in the first place is one of the best ways to deal with this particular issue.
"So I am very interested to know how that upstream work went, looking, of course, at other schemes, looking forward to my bilateral with the prime minister this afternoon, but we've already got a shared intent to work together on this trade, this vile trade, of pushing people across borders."
Earlier, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had confirmed that Britain is looking at an Italian-style asylum claims’ processing scheme in Albania, as more migrants are dying in desperate attempts to cross the Channel to reach Britain.
The Home Secretary stressed that the focus of the Government’s actions was currently on smashing the criminal gangs behind the human trafficking trade.
But she also confirmed that the UK and Italy are seeking to co-operate on multiple fronts.
Ms Cooper told BBC Breakfast: "There are four different things that the Italians are doing that we're interested in.
"The first is the work that they are doing around organised immigration crime. That's the work that we are substantially gearing up, where we will be doing a huge technology upgrade as well, and where we want to work with Italy, with Germany, with other European countries, with France as well.
"The second thing they're doing is they're working with other countries upstream to prevent people leaving North Africa in the first place...working with Tunisia, we think we should be part of those international co-operations as well.
"The third thing they're doing is major returns. So they're speeding up returns for those who don't have a right to be there. We've been doing that through the summer as well, so we've had a substantial increase in returns for people who don't have a right to be in the UK, because the rules need to be respected and enforced.
"The fourth thing they're doing is the Albania programme, but that hasn't started yet, so we'll need to see what that does. It's very different from the Rwanda partnership that the UK government had, and we'll have to see how that plays out."
But Ms Cooper stressed that Italy's planned third-country processing deal with Albania is "very, very different" from the previous UK government's Rwanda scheme.
The Home Secretary told Good Morning Britain: "It's very, very different. So the arrangement that they have in place - and look, it's not working yet, so we don't know how it will play out - but it is a very, very different approach.
"First of all, this is Italian processing taking place in Albania. It has UNHCR oversight, so it is being monitored to make sure that it meets international standards.
"It's being done in cooperation between those two countries, and what they're actually doing is looking at those people who arrive in Italy, who have come from predominantly safe countries, and they're using it as a way to try and fast-track decisions and returns.
"Now we think there is another way we can fast-track decisions and returns for people who arrive from predominantly safer countries.
"We should be fast-tracking those cases. We should be making sure you don't have people spending years in the asylum system, which ends up being hugely costly, hugely chaotic. That's the system we've inherited."
Ms Cooper also told how former Met Police chief Martin Hewitt is to play a key role leading Britain’s fight to make migration crime gangs behind cross-Channel crossings “pay the price” for the impact of their human trafficking trade, including rising fatalities.
Ahead of the talks with Ms Meloni, Sir Keir said Mr Hewitt, a former chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and ex-Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, would run a new Border Security Command which would be empowered to lead joint investigations with other countries.
Mr Hewitt also oversaw the UK’s enforcement of lockdown laws during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking on Monday morning, Ms Cooper said: “Martin Hewitt who was a former police chief and former army officer has huge experience around law enforcement.
“He will lead the new Border Security Command which is bringing together Border Force, the National Crime Agency, police forces, intelligence and security agencies, but also crucially working with European law enforcement in order to go after the criminal gangs and to make sure that they pay the price.
“They are getting away with this at the moment.
“It’s deeply damaging.”
On Sunday, French authorities said eight people had died trying to cross the Channel after their boat got into difficulty, bringing the death toll in attempted crossings to 46 since the start of the year.
