Former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton | Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Glamour Hillary Clinton urges Europe to curb migration to stop populists Former US presidential candidate says leaders must show they can no longer ‘provide refuge and support.’

Europe needs a tougher approach on immigration in order to curb the growing threat of right-wing populists, Hillary Clinton said, calling on EU leaders to show their electorates that they can no longer "provide refuge and support."

“I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame,” Clinton said in an interview with the Guardian published Thursday.

The former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate suggested that immigration concerns in part contributed to Britain's vote to leave the EU — which Clinton has previously described as the "greatest self-inflicted wound in modern history" — as well as her election loss to Donald Trump.

While Clinton said she admires German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her "compassionate" approach, she said it is "fair to say Europe has done its part, and must send a very clear message — ‘we are not going to be able to continue [to] provide refuge and support’ — because if we don’t deal with the migration issue, it will continue to roil the body politic.”

The Obama-era secretary of state also said Trump exploited the issue of migration during his 2016 election campaign and continues to do so in office.

“The use of immigrants as a political device and as a symbol of government gone wrong, of attacks on one’s heritage, one’s identity, one’s national unity has been very much exploited by the current administration here,” she said.

“There are solutions to migration that do not require clamping down on the press, on your political opponents and trying to suborn the judiciary, or seeking financial and political help from Russia to support your political parties and movements.”