HAMBURG, Germany, July 7 (Xinhua) -- European Council President Donald Tusk called on leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) on Friday to be "ruthless" in the fight against migrant smugglers in Libya, the main springboard for migrants to reach Europe.
Tusk made the remarks at a press conference along with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, before attending the plenary session of the G20 summit in the German port city of Hamburg.
The migrant inflows via the central Mediterranean route linking Libya to Italy remains a critical situation, he said, adding that the main task of the European Union (EU) was to effectively stop this wave at its source.
"Italy can count on Europe's help in every dimension. But this cannot mean a wider opening of Europe's door towards illegal migration," Tusk said, "That is why, here at the G20, I will call on all leaders to be ruthless in the fight against smugglers."
Branding migrant smuggling as an "organized business" which generated 1.6 billion U.S. dollars in Libya alone last year, Tusk said these profits allowed the smugglers to control some parts of the country.
The smugglers also cooperate with terrorists and further undermine the stabilization of Libya, Tusk said, calling for more efforts at the international level to break the smugglers' business model.
He proposed that all G20 leaders pursue targeted UN sanctions against smugglers.
"By this I mean asset freezes and travel bans," adding that these restrictive measures were "the very minimum that can be done at the global level."
Tusk, however, is not optimistic he will have the full support of G20 members.
"If we do not get it, it will be a sad proof of the hypocrisy of some of the G20 members," he said.
Migration is among a host of topics to be discussed at the two-day G20 summit themed "Shaping an Interconnected World."
According to the European Commission, since January there have been 85,183 migrant and refugee arrivals in Italy through the central Mediterranean Sea route and more than 2,000 migrants died taking the risky journey. In 2016, over 181,000 people, most of whom use Libya as a springboard to get to Europe, arrived in the EU through the same route.
The top five countries of origin coming to Italy this year are Nigeria, Bangladesh, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, and the Gambia.
In the context of the unprecedented refugee crisis, Africa has been on the EU radar after an EU-Turkey deal in March 2016 led to a sharp drop in the number of asylum seekers coming to Europe via the eastern Mediterranean route linking Turkey to Greece.
As the deadliest route for migrants last year, the central Mediterranean claimed the lives of 4,576 people, according to the International Organization for Migration.
