A German border police woman reacts after dozens of refugees unexpectedly disembarked a train from Budapest's Keleti station at the railway station of the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, early morning Sept6, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

"WAKE UP"

At an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on Saturday, the usual diplomatic conviviality unravelled as they failed to agree on any practical steps out of the crisis. Ministers are especially at odds over proposals for country-by-country quotas to take in asylum seekers.

"Given the challenges facing our German friends as well, all of Europe needs to wake up," Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said. "Whoever still thinks that withdrawal from the EU or a barbed wire fence around Austria will solve the problem is wrong."

British finance minister George Osborne said Europe and Britain must offer asylum to those genuinely fleeing persecution, but must also boost aid, defeat people-smuggling gangs and tackle the Syrian conflict to ease the crisis.

Pressure to take effective action rose sharply this week after pictures flashed around the world of a drowned 3-year-old Syrian Kurdish boy washed up on the beach of a Turkish resort, personalising the collective tragedy of the refugees.

Aylan Kurdi died with his mother and brother while try.