Migration needs a civilian not a military solution, and bombing boats off Libyan coasts will solve nothing because smugglers will simply shift location and find new boats, Tripoli mayor Mahdi Al-Harati said yesterday.

In an interview with Times of Malta at the end of a brief visit to the island over the weekend, Mr Al-Harati insisted that Europe should engage with Tripoli’s authorities to enhance cooperation and provide assistance to Libya’s struggling security forces and border patrol agencies.

Any plan by Europe to bomb coastal areas would be “criminal”. “Children and women live in these areas. But even if they target the boats alone, what will it solve?

“The smugglers will shift their business elsewhere.

“What we need is cooperation and coordination between the coastguard operating in Libya and the authorities in Europe. Why can we not start solving this problem in a civilian way?” he said.

Ultimately, however, Europe should be looking at the drivers of the phenomenon, he said.

“Why do migrants want to come here? That is what you need to ask yourselves. They come for justice, the economy, safety. They want a future; you offer migrants these things in Libya and in their own countries and they will stay there,” he said, stressing that a military solution was no option.