New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters (pictured), has called for male Syrian refugees to return home to 'fight for their freedom'

A leading politician has called for male Syrian refugees to return home to 'fight for their freedom' and said only women and children should be granted asylum in New Zealand.

Winston Peters, the NZ First leader, warned against 'mass immigration' in the wake of the escalating refugee crisis in Europe.

But his 'irresponsible' comments have been slammed by experts who claimed the politician was telling men to go back to a 'meat grinder'.

Speaking after the Government voted in favour of offering 600 emergency places to Syrian refugees, Mr Peters said: 'I think we can do better, but we can't while we've got mass immigration.

'And if we're going to do it, let's bring the women and children and tell some of the men to go back and fight for their own country's freedom, like we are.'

His comments came after controversial Australian senator Cory Bernardi claimed drowned Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi was not a genuine refugee as his father just wanted better dental care.

After reading Mr Peters' comments, Dr Zain Ali from the Islamic Studies Research Unit at the University of Auckland, contacted the New Zealand Herald.

He said: 'You are saying to them, 'go and fight for your freedom'. But in Syria at the moment there are, according to the BBC, 1000 different rebel groups - which one do you want them to fight for?'

The New Zealand Government bowed to public pressure today and announced it would accept 750 Syrian refugees over the next three years, including 600 in an emergency intake.

Prime Minister John Key defended the quota and argued that welcoming and more refugees would put public services under pressure.

Speaking at his post-Cabinet news conference, he said: 'These are really serious matters and I don't want to be flippant about these things but it is very easy for the Opposition to get up and say 'double the quota.'

'Someone at the weekend was reported as saying 'bring 10,000'. With the greatest respect, do they actually understand what that would do to the system in New Zealand?

Thousands of migrants were seen walking towards the Austrian border on Friday in Bicske, near Budapest

Australian senator Cory Bernardi claimed drowned Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi (pictured) was not a genuine refugee

'It's not just that we're not a very populated country, we have to actually house people, we have to be able to give them services, we've got to be able to do all those things.'

The distressing image of Aylan's body washing up on a Turkish beach last week has sparked national and international debate about how to deal with the millions of refugees displaced by war.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has pledged to accept more refugees from war-torn Syria in the wake of the migrant crisis in Europe.

He said the country would 'step up to the plate' and welcome up to 18,000 asylum seekers over the next few years as part of an existing 'substantial commitment'.