African and European leaders on Monday backed proposals to screen asylum seekers in Africa as a way to prevent thousands from taking perilous journeys across the Mediterranean. Hosting the talks in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested setting up “fully safe areas” in Niger and Chad — key transit points for migrants — where asylum-seekers would be processed by the UN refugee agency UNHCR. The leaders signed a roadmap on the proposal, though there were as yet few details on how it might work. A joint mission will be sent to Niger and Chad soon, they said in a statement after the mini-summit. The seven heads of state or government, who included Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Libya’s political stalemate was a central obstacle to resolving the crisis that has seen nearly 1.5 million people arrive in Europe since 2015, according to the International Organization for Migration. “As long as the crisis in Libya is not resolved, I don’t think we can find a definitive solution to the issue,” said Chadian President Idriss Deby. Two competing governments and dozens of armed factions are jostling for power in Libya, which plunged into chaos after the overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi