Image of dead boy piles pressure over Syrian refugees

REUTERS: British Prime Minister David Cameron has come under pressure to take in more refugees, after the image of a dead Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach raised the emotional temperature of the debate.

Pictures of the toddler’s lifeless body  sparked horror in Europe as the continent grapples with the biggest humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II.

The images of a tiny child lying face down in the surf at one of Turkey’s main tourist resorts have been printed on the front pages newspapers all over Europe, putting a human face on the dangers faced by tens of thousands of desperate people who risk life and limb to seek a new life in Europe.

The boy, wearing a red t-shirt and blue shorts, has been identified as three-year-old Aylan Kurdi from Kobani, a war-torn Kurdish town on the Turkey-Syria border.

His five-year-old brother Galip and his mother Rihan, 35, have also been identified as being among the 12 Syrians trying to reach Greece who died when their boats sank.

The family had been reportedly trying to emigrate to Canada.

The father said his children “slipped through his hands” as their boat was taking in water en route to Greece.

“I was holding my wife’s hand. But my children slipped through my hands,” Abdullah Kurdi told Turkey’s Dogan news agency of the sinking that also killed his wife and 5-year old child.

“We tried to cling to the boat, but it was deflating. It was dark and everyone was screaming.”

Top diplomats from France, Italy and Germany have urged a rethink of European rules on asylum to allow for a fairer distribution of migrants throughout the 28-member bloc.

The call came as tensions soared between European states over how to tackle the huge influx of asylum seekers and migrants, as thousands more arrived on the Greek mainland, where more than 160,000 people have already landed this year alone.

Over the past week there has been a dramatic spike in the numbers of migrants — mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa — seeking to leave Turkey by sea for Greece in the hope of finding new lives in the European Union.

The Turkish coastguard said two boats had sunk after setting off from the Bodrum peninsula for the Greek Aegean island of Kos early on Wednesday.