German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced down far-right hecklers today, vowing zero tolerance for "vile" anti-migrant violence as rescuers found 40 corpses on a stricken boat off the Libyan coast.
The biggest migrant crisis to hit Europe since World War II spiralled further as chaotic scenes erupted at a Hungarian border town with police firing tear gas, and Budapest mulling a troop deployment to stem a record influx of asylum-seekers.
Alarmed by the worsening situation, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged countries "in Europe and elsewhere to prove their compassion and do much more to bring an end to the crisis".
The thousands of migrants and refugees who brave perilous journeys "should not, when they arrive, encounter new challenges," Ban said during a visit to Paris today.
Hamstrung by a lack of a coherent European response to the crisis, governments have undertaken at times contradictory approaches to the problem.
Hungary is building a vast razor-wire barrier to keep migrants out, while Czech deputy prime minister Andrej Babis has called for the visa-free Schengen zone be closed with the help of NATO troops.
Germany, which is preparing to receive a record 800,000 asylum-seekers this year, confirmed yesterday that it has eased the asylum application procedure for Syrians fleeing the country's brutal civil war.
But Berlin's largesse has not been welcomed by everyone at home, particularly in the east where a spate of attacks has hit refugee centres.
On her visit to a migrant shelter in the eastern town of Heidenau, Merkel was greeted by about 200 protesters, some booing and shouting "traitor, traitor" and "we are the mob" as she arrived.
But the German leader vowed: "There will be no tolerance of those who question the dignity of other people."
She added that the more people there are who carry this message, "the stronger we will be and the better we will be able to address this task" of caring for refugees.
Separately, President Joachim Gauck blasted a "dark Germany" behind the series of xenophobic attacks.
Public opinion was largely behind the leaders, with 60 percent of Germans polled by public broadcaster ZDF saying that Europe's biggest economy was capable of hosting the asylum-seekers.
Rescuers found 40 bodies today in the hold of a migrant boat off the coast of Libya, the Swedish coastguard said.
The macabre discovery adds to a toll of 2,370 people who have drowned in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2015, already exceeding the death toll for the whole of 2014, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
