A Syrian father yesterday buried his wife and two little boys, drowned as they tried to flee to Europe, while Hungary’s right-wing leader told Europeans they risk becoming a minority on their own continent.

With desperation and anger deepening among migrants escaping conflict and poverty, hundreds broke out of a Hungarian camp and others set off on foot from Budapest, hoping to find sanctuary in northern Europe.

In neighbouring Austria, police said the driver of a truck found abandoned last week with the bodies of 71 migrants in the back was among a group of people arrested in Hungary.

Dozens more narrowly avoided death by using a crowbar to escape from another truck owned by the same Bulgarian man, they said.

More than 300,000 people have crossed to Europe by sea so far this year and more than 2,600 have died doing so. Many of those making the voyage are refugees from the civil war in Syria, now in its fifth year.

In the latest report of deaths at sea, about 30-40 people drowned in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya after a dinghy carrying 120-140 Somalis, Sudanese and Nigerians deflated, causing panic on board, the International Organisation for Migration reported.

Abdullah Kurdi mourns with a relative yesterday during the funeral of his sons, who drowned with their mother as they tried to reach Greece. Photo: Rodi Said/Reuters

In the Syrian town of Kobani, three-year-old Aylan Kurdi was laid to rest alongside his mother and five-year-old brother at the “Martyr’s Cemetery” in the pre­dominantly Kurdish community near the Turkish border.

Images of the tiny body of Aylan washed up on a beach near the Turkish resort of Bodrum gave a human face to the high death toll and prompted a global outpouring of sympathy this week. He drowned with his brother Galip, his mother and at least nine others while trying to cross in two small boats to the Greek island of Kos just a few kilometres away.

While pressure is rising on European governments to tackle the crisis more effectively, the boys’ weeping father, Abdullah Kurdi, called on countries closer to home to act.

“I want Arab governments – not European countries – to see [what happened to] my children, and because of them to help people,” he said in footage posted online by a local radio station.

The head of the United Nations’ refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, yesterday called for the European Union to mobilise its “full force” to help the migrants.

Hungary has become a major flashpoint of the crisis, as the main entry point for migrants who reach the EU overland across the Balkan peninsula, bound for richer countries further north and west, particularly Germany.

In Austria, police said the 71 dead migrants found alongside a motorway near the Hungarian border last week were Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan nationals, but not a single one of them had been identified. They included a baby girl, her brother, two other children and eight women.

I want Arab governments – not European countries – to see [what happened to] my children

There was enough air inside the truck for no more than 90 minutes and the people appeared to have slowly lost consciousness, suffocating before they crossed from Hungary. The driver was among five people arrested in Hungary, they added.

In southern Hungary, police gave chase as about 300 migrants fled the crowded reception centre in Roszke on the border with Serbia. Another 2,300 migrants still inside were threatening to break out too, and the MTI state news agency said dozens more had fled a second camp west of Budapest in the town of Bicske.

Hungary says it is enforcing EU rules that it must register all migrants caught crossing its borders, but thousands refuse and demand they be allowed to continue their journey to western Europe. Germany has said it will let Syrians register for asylum regardless of where they entered the EU, causing confusion among neighbouring countries who have alternated between letting them go and stopping them.

Cameron agrees to welcome more Syrian refugees

Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday that Britain would welcome “thousands more” Syrian refugees, after an outpouring of emotion over the image of a Syrian toddler lying dead on a Turkish beach put him under pressure to act.

Cameron, who spent two days refusing to commit Britain to taking in more migrants in response to a surge in numbers reaching Europe, gave no precise figure. A spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency told reporters in Geneva that Britain would offer 4,000 spaces for Syrian refugees.

In Madrid, Cameron said his government would spend another £100 million on humanitarian aid, taking its total contribution to £1 billion since 2012.

With Europe seemingly at a loss over how to cope with a huge increase in numbers of migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa seeking safety or better lives, Cameron had previously said he did not think the answer was to take in more.

Many at home and abroad accused his government of being uncaring and inflexible, and several of his own Conservative legislators and the human rights chief of the Council of Europe urged Britain to welcome more refugees.

“Given the scale of the crisis and the suffering of people, today I can announce that we will do more in providing resettlement for thousands more Syrian refugees,” Cameron told reporters in Lisbon after meeting his Portuguese counterpart.

About 5,000 Syrians who made their own way to Britain since the start of the war in their country have been granted asylum, and another 216 were brought to Britain under a UN-backed relocation scheme.

Other European countries including Germany and Sweden have taken in far more refugees than Britain in recent times, and London declined to take part in a proposed EU scheme to allocate quotas to member states.