A League amendment to the government's second security and migrants decree envisages fines ranging from 150,000 euros to one million euros for NGO ships that fail to respect Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's closed-ports policy, sources said Tuesday.
This compares to existing fines of 10-50,000 euros.
NGOs Mediterranea, Open Arms, Sea watch and Sea Eye are currently defying Salvini's policy by rescuing migrants off Libya - although Mediterranea's yacht has been impounded.
Meanwhile there has been a steady stream of 'ghost' migrant landings where migrants come directly from North Africa without any NGO assistance.
These are happening largely under the radar of Salvini's high-profile clash with the NGOs, which has helped him surge in the polls to almost 40%.
According to the latest figures, just 8% of the 3,000 or so migrants who landed in Italy this year were rescued by NGO ships.
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