Tony Abbott Credit:Andrew Meares "Like every other Australian I was moved by the horrific imagery of that little boy [Aylan Kurdi] washed up on a beach in Turkey," Mr Abbott said at a press conference in Canberra. "We have always been a good global citizen. Always have been, always will be ... this is doing that right thing by Australia, and it's doing the right thing by the world." The announcement comes as international attention is focused on the Syrian refugee crisis, which was tragically highlighted by the photograph of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned last week as his family tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea. After days of confrontation and chaos, Hungary deployed more than 100 buses overnight to take thousands of the migrants who had streamed there from southeast Europe to the Austrian border. Austria said it had agreed with Germany to allow the migrants access, waiving asylum rules.

Migrants grab for food at a reception centre for refugees and asylum seekers in Berlin. Credit:AP Wrapped in blankets and sleeping bags, long lines of weary people, many carrying small, sleeping children, got off buses on the Hungarian side of the border and walked through the rain into Austria, receiving fruit and water from aid workers. Waiting Austrians held signs that read "Refugees welcome". Hungary, the main entry point into Europe's borderless Schengen zone for migrants, has taken a hard line, vowing to seal its southern frontier with a new, high fence by September 15. In particular, Hungary has lashed out at Germany, which expects to receive 800,000 refugees and migrants this year, for declaring it would accept Syrians' requests regardless of where they entered the EU. Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Hungary would deploy police and troops along its border with Serbia after September 15 if parliament approved a government proposal.

"It's not 150,000, that some [in the EU] want to divide according to quotas, it's not 500,000, a figure that I heard in Brussels; it's millions, then tens of millions, because the supply of immigrants is endless," he said. In Australia, pressure has been growing on the federal government to act, with NSW Premier Mike Baird and Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman offering to help with any increased efforts. Liberal backbenchers Craig Laundy and Russell Broadbent also called on the government to do more. "I am begging for a response that goes beyond what we currently have in place," said Western Sydney MP Mr Laundy​, who applauded Mr Abbott for sending the immigration minister to Geneva. Mr Broadbent said he was sure many of his colleagues were looking for a response to the unfolding tragedy that extended beyond the existing humanitarian intake.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten also joined calls for an increase in the number of Syrian refugees. "Labor believes that we can take more refugees in Australia. We should also be providing greater resources to the United Nations Commission for Refugees," Mr Shorten said. Labor supports an increase in the overall number of refugees taken by Australia to 27,000 people a year by 2025, but has not put a specific figure on the number of people who should come from Syria. The Greens want Australia to immediately accept an additional 20,000 Syrian refugees. Greens immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, said the announcement amounted to "virtually nothing" because the government had given "no real commitment" to increase Australia's overall refugee intake.

"We need to be taking more refugees, we need to be putting more funding towards the United Nations, and we need to stop with the callous talk of turning back boats," Ms Hanson-Young said in Canberra. "It is crucial that we give an emergency intake above and beyond the current numbers of 20,000, to help re-settle those … children and families fleeing the war zone in Syria. "[That would be] a small, modest, but meaningful number for Australia and anything less, anything within the current intake, simply isn't good enough. This is a humanitarian crisis." Mr Abbott said "no other country on earth takes more refugees on a per capita basis" than Australia. A press release from Mr Abbott's office said Australia was "the UNHCR's leading nation for the permanent resettlement of refugees".

The government is increasing the humanitarian program from 13,750 places a year to 18,750 places a year by 2018/19. Mr Abbott said priority would be given to families and women and children, especially those from persecuted minorities who have taken refuge in camps neighbouring Syria and Iraq. Australia took 4400 people from Syria and northern Iraq last financial year, which represents about 30 per cent of the 13,750 places in the humanitarian program. Mr Abbott said the Coalition's success in stopping boat arrivals meant the government, not people smugglers, was now in charge of which asylum seekers came to Australia. "As a result of the government's success in stopping illegal boat arrivals to Australia, we are now in a position to take more refugees from offshore refugee camps," Mr Abbott said.

Mr Dutton will also discuss with the UNHCR increasing government funding to help the agency with the cost of the millions of people who have been displaced by the conflict in Syria. The national security committee of cabinet is expected this week to sign off on a plan that would expand the RAAF's mission beyond the Iraqi border into Syria. Mr Abbott repeated his support for the plan on Sunday, saying the measure was necessary to combat "the rise of a new barbarism inside this country". Earlier in the day Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop suggested that an alternative option to taking more refugees would be the creation of so-called safe havens within Syria and along the border. Loading

However Mr Abbott downplayed that idea, saying people wanted to leave Syria. "It's a dire situation inside Syria," Mr Abbott said.