French plan to process asylum claims in Africa

A SERIES of ‘hotspots’ to weed out economic migrants from genuine refugees could be set up in Africa by the French.

The plan emerged as Italy came to a deal with Libya that its boats could patrol the country’s waters and turn back boats full of migrants.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that between 800,000 and one million people are languishing along the north African coast hoping to reach Europe. An official said France would consider setting up migrant ‘hotspots’ in Libya, Niger and Chad.

‘The idea is to create hotspots to avoid people taking crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum,’ Mr Macron said yesterday. ‘We will go to them.’

Mr Macron said the flow of migrants was destabilising Libya and that smugglers were funding terrorism.

He said he wanted the bloc to ‘process asylum seekers as close as possible to the ground’ amid a growing row over how to deal with the crisis.