French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting several African and European leaders for a summit aimed at boosting efforts to curb the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.
The talks being held in the capital Paris involve leaders from Chad, Niger and Libya – major transit countries for migrants who risk their lives to reach Europe for various reasons.
European leaders expected to attend the summit include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italy’s Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and Spain’s Mariano Rajoy.
Macron is reported to have proposed to have migrant requests processed in Africa in order to ease the influx of the migrants.
He has hinted at setting up “hotspots” in Chad, Niger and Libya to process asylum applications, though Libya’s chronic instability might pose a major obstacle to such centres operating there.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 100,000 migrants have made the perilous sea journey from Libya to Italy this year, with more than 2,000 said to have died while attempting the journey.
July saw a sharp drop in the migrants’ numbers to Italy, going down by 57% compared with the numbers in June. Officials attribute this to the tightened co-operation between Italian and Libyan security forces.
Most of the migrants are West Africans, with Nigeria, Guinea and Ivory Coast the top countries of origin. In most cases they are treated as economic migrants, rather than refugees fleeing fighting or persecution.
In 2015 the EU pledged €1.8bn (£1.6bn; $2.1bn) for initiatives to help African countries stem the flow of migrants to Europe.
The plans include beefing up border surveillance along migrant routes and schemes to create jobs for impoverished communities.
The focus of short-term efforts is however to shift the processing of asylum claims to offices in Africa.
