The people smuggling capital of the world crying out for Europe to deal with 'its problem'

Tobruk has become the major route for migrants looking to enter Europe from Africa. The port city on Libya's Mediterranean coast is chock-a-block with young men from North Africa looking to escape war torn countries and crippling poverty.

Many are living rough on the streets of the city, waiting for a call from smugglers to board small boats heading across the Mediterranean. Among the refugees are people from Sudan, a country in the grip of a brutal civil war that has seen thousands slaughtered by rampaging militias. The migrants far outnumber the local residents of this coastal city, posing serious problems for the authorities.

"They all want to cross the sea to Europe," Commander Abdul Salam Buker of the Anti-Illegal Migration Unit told Sky News.

The commander said he sympathised with the refugees, saying Libyans had their own terrible experiences of civil war.

"I have a lot of sympathy for those who are trying to escape war," he said. "We Libyans have been through war. We know what it is like. But they don't want to stay in Libya. They want to go to Europe."

His heavily armed men sit patiently in pick-up trucks, as they wait for tip offs from informants before springing into action.

They often have just minutes to prevent migrants from scrambling aboard rubber dingy boats and heading out to sea and off to Europe.

The smugglers have been known to lock up their passengers in empty farm buildings until a safe window for a crossing presents itself.

Officials in eastern Libya say the EU must help fund their forces in protecting the coastline and stemming the refugee tide.

This should include agreements, financial and technical help, and official political recognition - just like those afforded to their rivals in the west of the country.

General Salah al Khifify, head of the East Libyan Anti-Illegal Migration Department, told Sky News: "This is Europe's problem, but it is us who are left to deal with it. We cannot do it all on our own."