French President Emmanuel Macron and General Khalifa Haftar, commander in the Libyan National Army (LNA) attend a press conference near Paris, on July 25, 2017 | Jacques Demarthon/AFP via Getty Images Macron announces plan to process asylum applications in Libya French president says centers will be constructed this summer ‘with or without Europe.’

France will set up processing centers in Libya to prevent migrants from making the perilous trip across the Mediterranean to get to European shores, President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday, according to Le Figaro.

"The idea is to create hotspots to avoid people taking crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum. We'll go to them," Macron said at a refugee center in Orléans, in central France. He added that his government will begin implementation this summer "with or without Europe."

The idea of setting up external processing centers, also known as hotspots, has been mooted in Brussels as a way to deal with the large flow of migrants, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, but is not popular with many officials who believe the hotspots would make it easier for migrants to enter Europe.

Some hotspots have been set up in Greece and Italy to deal with the thousands of migrants who have already arrived in Europe, but there are none in Libya, from where more than 100,000 migrants have headed to Europe this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. In the same period, 2,300 migrants have died trying to cross into Europe.

Macron said he was willing to send French officials to Libya to help. "I am also ready to send some [officials] to Libya," he said.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe unveiled the government's migration plan, which included stricter law enforcement and increased returns of failed asylum seekers, as well as better accommodation and services such as French lessons for accepted refugees.