Silence unknown calls without sending to voicemail

I want to silence unknown phone calls, however I do ‘not’ want them to go to voicemail.

I do not use nor require voicemail and have disabled it. However the phones act of sending a call to voicemail could enable it which I categorically do not want (even accidentally tapping the voicemail button can re-activate it).

I would rather the caller phone back if it was important or better still to send a text or emails revealing who they are. Voicemail is a problem and the caller will believe they have made a successful contact attempt if they leave a voicemail which would not be the case, as I would not review and voicemails (not using the feature).

Is there a way to mute unknown calls so that they are ‘not’ sent to voicemail?