The British government is urgently working on a plan to take in more Syrian refugees, amid intense pressure over the country's failure to match other European nations such as Germany and Sweden, which have opened their doors to large numbers of people fleeing violence in the war-torn state.
David Cameron said on Thursday he was "deeply moved" as a father by shocking pictures of a three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi's body lying on a Turkish beach after he, his brother and their mother drowned in an attempt to reach Europe by boat.
The prime minister - who is today visiting Spain and Portugal for talks on his renegotiation of Britain's EU membership - said Britain's response to the crisis was "under review" and promised the UK would fulfil its "moral responsibilities".
Mr Cameron spoke amid desperate scenes in Hungary where thousands of migrants have gathered at Budapest's Keleti railway station in the hope of reaching Western Europe.
The government has so far declined to join a UN scheme for resettling the most vulnerable refugees, instead setting up its own programme that has admitted around 216 over the past year. Some 5,000 Syrians have been granted asylum in the last four years.
Britain has also refused to join an EU scheme to resettle migrants arriving in frontline countries like Hungary, Italy and Greece.
By contrast, Germany has accepted 35,000 vulnerable Syrians through the UN scheme, Canada more than 10,000, Australia 5,600 and Switzerland 3,500.
Germany also expects to take in a total of 800,000 asylum seekers through all routes this year.
