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A Syrian refugee holds a child moments after arriving on a dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos, September 3, 2015. Greece will ask the European Union for about 700 million euros to build infrastructure to shelter the hundreds of refugees and migrants arriving on its shores daily, the government said on Thursday. The cash-strapped country has seen a rise in the number of refugees and migrants -- mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan -- arriving on rubber dinghies from nearby Turkey. REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

Touched by the plight of the refugees, who were forced to leave their country in search for a safer shelter, Federal Minister Barnaby Joyce has urged the Australian government to resettle more Syrian refugees. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that his government has already taken up that responsibility.

Joyce was moved by the accounts of a man whose only belongings in the whole world were a plastic bag of water bottles and a packet of biscuits.

“As an accountant myself, when you see an accountant walking across the border into Hungary from Syria when his life has been destroyed, I feel a sense of empathy for him,” Joyce told The West Australian.

Earlier on Friday, Mr Abbott noted the importance of stopping asylum seekers’ boats in the face of the distressing images of a dead Syrian boy found on a Turkish beach that was released by the media. "As long as people think that if they can get here they can stay here, we'll have the illegal trade, we'll have the people smugglers in business and we'll have the tragedies at sea," he told the ABC.

Senior Liberal Senator Eric Abetz is of the opinion that the Australian government should consider the issues regarding debt and deficit before it thinks of any further offer from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees funding. He told reporters that Australia is the most generous in the world considering the kind of support it provides the refugees. Abetz also followed suit with the prime minister and said stopping the boat allows the government to have a fair humanitarian intake.

The Labor, on the other hand, has pledged that they would consider resettling refugees when they come to power. Opposition leader Bill Shorten said that though he would prefer to continue the government policy to stop asylum seeker boats, he would allow more migrants through the front door.

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