Hungary warns of instability from Europe's refugee influx

Says Europe won't be able to carry this burden on its own

Hungary has warned that Europe's migrant crisis was threatening the continent's stability, at a UN meeting called to agree on a global response to the largest refugee exodus since World War II.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the meeting of some 70 countries yesterday with an appeal to keep borders open, combat xenophobia and integrate refugees and migrants.

"The future does not belong to those who seek to build walls or exploit fears," said the UN chief.

Leaders gathered at the United Nations on the same day as Greek authorities recovered the bodies of a migrant woman and a child who drowned when their dinghy capsized in the Aegean, the latest reminder of the tragedy.

Taking a hard line on the migration crisis, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Europe cannot cope and called on Ban to launch negotiations on setting global quotas for accepting migrants.

"Let me be clear: Europe will not be able to carry this burden on our own," Orban said.

"If there is no change in the current trends, Europe will be destabilised."

Hungary has shut down its border with Serbia and is considering closing down its frontier with Croatia, building a razor wire fence to keep out the tens of thousands of people on the move.

Tackling the migrant crisis will require greater attention to bolstering peace and economic development, Orban argued, to "give back these people their homes and their country."

"It cannot be our objective to provide them with a new European life," he said.

The UN chief outlined an eight-point plan that included managed migration to open up more safe and legal channels for refugees and migrants and called for more burden-sharing to resettle refugees.

Europe's handling of the crisis has come into focus amid an intense diplomatic debate over the way forward to end the war in Syria, which has driven four million people from their homes.