Berlin: Britain and France on Monday joined Germany in pledging to accept tens of thousands of refugees as Europe's record influx of people fleeing war and misery sparked warnings that one Greek migrant chokepoint was "on the verge of explosion".
European leaders are scrambling for solutions as bloody conflicts in Syria, Iraq and beyond have sent hundreds of thousands of desperate people on dangerous voyages through the Balkans and across the Mediterranean to the 28-nation EU.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country is Europe's top refugee destination, hailed the warm welcome her citizens gave to 20,000 asylum-seekers who streamed across its southern borders on weekend trains, and pledged billions more in money to house them.
Signalling that the huge wave of arrivals marked a new milestone for Europe's biggest economy, she said that "what we are experiencing now is something that will ... change our country in coming years".
"We want the change to be positive, and we believe we can accomplish that," she said.
As EU leaders stepped up efforts to tackle the historic crisis, France said it would take 24,000 more asylum-seekers under a European plan to relocate 120,000 refugees from hard-hit frontline countries.
And British Prime Minister David Cameron said his country would take in 20,000 Syrian refugees from camps near the war-torn country's borders over the next five years, calling the United Kingdom "a country of extraordinary compassion".
Across the Atlantic, Canada's Quebec province pledged to welcome 3,650 Syrian refugees in 2015.
In Greece, the situation on Lesbos island near Turkey was "on the verge of explosion" with the recent arrival of more than 15,000 mainly Syrian refugees, the immigration minister warned.
Clashes have broken out on Lesbos in recent days between police and migrants, and between migrants of different nationalities.
Elsewhere tensions have flared too as about 40 men rioted at a Spanish migrant detention centre in Valencia late Sunday and dozens tried to escape, in clashes that left five police injured.
Meanwhile, the poor and desperate kept coming, both on the land corridor through Turkey and the Balkans and on overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean on journeys that have left 2,800 dead or missing this year.
Underscoring the danger brought home by last week's shocking image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying drowned in the surf, a Greek passenger ferry today sent its lifeboats to rescue 61 migrants whose boat was at risk of sinking off Lesbos.
Libyan coastguards said they had rescued over 120 migrants aboard a rubber boat en route to Europe. Elsewhere migrants rescued by Italian authorities yesterday said five of their group were still missing.
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