Hangzhou-The president of the European Union warned on Sunday that the Old Continent was “close to limit” on accepting refugees.

Donald Tusk urged the international community to exert further efforts to step up resettlement of people seeking refuge.

A growing number of refugees have fled to Europe to escape instability in Syria, Iraq, Eritrea and Somalia, among other nations.

“The practical capabilities of Europe to host new waves of refugees, not to mention irregular economic migrants, are close to the limits,” the EU president said before the launch of the two-day G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China.

G20 leaders are meeting in Hangzhou, about one hour outside of Shanghai, through Monday to tackle issues including trade, terrorism and climate change.

Tusk called on G20 leaders to deploy further efforts to support the world refugee population.

“In light of an unprecedented number of 65 million displaced people all over the world, the G20 community needs to scale up its share of responsibility,” Tusk said.

“Only global efforts supporting refugees and their host communities will be able to bear fruit,” he added.

The EU president also said: “That is why we want to encourage our partners to increase humanitarian and development aid, as well as refugee resettlement. We need to address the root causes that force millions of people to leave their homes and seek shelter elsewhere.”