Bill Gates has blasted Germany’s open-door migrant policy warning European leaders they must make it more difficult for North Africans to reach the continent.

The Microsoft founder and world’s richest person said Europe will not be able to handle the huge numbers of people desperately trying to leave Africa.

4 Bill Gates warns that Germany's open-door policy could deepen the migrant crisis Credit: AP:Associated Press

This comes as Austrian tanks have moved to seal off a vital border with Italy as over 84,000 migrants from North African have reached Italian shores this year - a 19 per cent increase from last year according to the UN.

Spain is also struggling to cope with the crisis with 6,000 people arriving by boat this year and dozens drowning during the treacherous journey.

Speaking with German news outlet Welt am Sonntag newspaper, US billionaire Gates, 61, said developed nations should instead be spending more on foreign aid to treat the causes of migration.

He said: “On the one hand you want to demonstrate generosity and take in refugees.

“But the more generous you are, the more word gets around about this — which in turn motivates more people to leave Africa.

“Germany cannot possibly take in the huge number of people who are wanting to make their way to Europe.”

4 A migrant hangs from a boat as they wait to be rescued as they drift in the Mediterranean Sea (stock image) Credit: Getty Images

4 Libyan rescue workers recover the bodies of migrants which have washed ashore at the coast of Tajoura, east of Tripoli Credit: EPA

Gates suggested other countries should emulate Germany’s “phenomenal” spending on foreign aid which is 0.7 per cent of their GDP.

But he added that Chancellor Angela Merkel cannot continue the open-door policy which let over one million people into the country since 2015.

He said: “Europe must make it more difficult for Africans to reach the continent via the current transit routes.”

The American tech mogul’s own charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has spent millions on aid in Africa aimed at preventing poverty and disease.

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Yet his remarks to the German media demonstrate the severity of the migrant crisis in western Europe.

So far this year more than 100,000 migrants, mainly from North Africa and the Middle East, have flooded into Europe— 20 per cent more than last year, according to the UN.

German newspaper Bild reports that a leaked government document suggests up to 6.6 million people could be trying to enter Europe including 2.5 million from North Africa.

War-torn Libya has seen thousands of migrants making their way across the Mediterranean Sea in the hope of a better life in Europe.

But the UN has said that seven in 10 people coming from the failed North African state are not refugees and asylum-seekers but economic migrants.

The UN refugee agency says that people smuggling from Libya to countries such as Italy are on the rise.

4 An Austrian tank pictured near the Italian border

Indeed, agency confirmed that 84,830 migrants and refugees have reached the southern Italian shores so far this year.

This comes as the Austrian army have tried to block its border with Italy to prevent migrants flooding in.

The shock deployment sparked a diplomatic row between Vienna and the neighbouring nation.

Four Pandur armoured personnel carriers and 750 troops are at the Brenner Pass crossing in the Alps.

Austria’s foreign minister Sebastian Kurz said: "The preparations at our border with Italy are not only justified but necessary. We are prepared and if necessary we will defend our borders."

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