GETTY•REUTERS Macky Sall speaks out at the Valletta Summit

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The fund was proposed by European leaders attending an emergency summit in Malta in an attempt to encourage African governments to do more to stop migrants setting out across the Mediterranean. It included £200million from British taxpayers towards aid projects in Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and other parts of Africa.

Several African leaders rejected the money as insufficient while also blocking requests for their governments to assist in deportations from Europe of failed asylum seekers. Senegal’s president Macky Sall described the fund as “a very good beginning” but said £1.3billion was “not enough for the whole of Africa”.

GETTY Migrants travel through Europe

Migrant crisis explained in numbers Fri, July 22, 2016 A monthly record of 218,394 migrants and refugees reached Europe by sea in October, the UN says, almost as many as the total number of arrivals in 2014. We take a look at the shocking statistics facing the humanitarian crisis. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 47 137 migrants of African origins were rescued by coast guard boats off the coast of Libya

He wanted to see the fund “more generously financed”. His remarks were supported by Niger president President Mahamadou Issoufou while Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, prime minister of Somalia, said: “What Africa needs today is not charity but investment.”

If we are to stop people risking their lives by making dangerous journeys to Europe, we need to tackle the root causes of problems International Development Secretary Justine Greening

The summit was called in response to the drownings of hundreds of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean this summer. David Cameron had left the summit a day early to return to London for the visit of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. Before leaving, he had indicated his willingness to commit almost half a billion pounds from Britain’s overseas aid budget over the next five years to schemes in Africa and Turkey to tackle migration.

GETTY Illegal migrants caught in Libya trying to make their way to Europe

GETTY Makeshift detention centre for refugees in Libya

International Development Secretary Justine Greening said: “If we are to stop people risking their lives by making dangerous journeys to Europe, we need to tackle the root causes of problems such as instability and lack of opportunity that drive people to move in the first place. “If people don’t have access to basics like clean water and healthcare, education for their children and the dignity of a job to support themselves and their family, they will try to find a better situation somewhere else.”