As thousands of people try desperately to reach safety in Europe, campaigners and politicians in New Zealand are calling for an urgent increase to New Zealand's refugee quota.

The crisis - said to be the largest movement of refugees since the end of World War II - has been highlighted by distressing images of a drowned Syrian toddler washed up on the beach of the Greek island of Kos after two boats overturned.

This toddler was 1 of 12 refugees from Syria that drowned before they reached the Greek coast http://t.co/QMsqb0PIoK pic.twitter.com/ueUHFexVRf

— Newstalk ZB (@NewstalkZB) September 2, 2015

The corpses of 12 migrants, including five children and one woman, were found and 15 people were rescued, with some surviving after reaching the shore in life jackets.

Over the last week there's been a dramatic spike in the numbers of migrants - mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa - seeking to leave Turkey by sea for Greece in the hope of finding new lives in the European Union.

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The Turkish coastguard had rescued over 42,000 migrants in the Aegean Sea in the first five months of 2015 and more than 2160 in the last week alone.

Yesterday, the Labour Party urged an emergency refugee intake given the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Europe, and today Party leader Andrew Little accused Prime Minister John Key of lacking empathy and moral leadership by refusing to raise the refugee quota - which hasn't been changed in almost 30 years.

Little pointed out that there are times in politics where stark choices between right and wrong had to be made.

"Every person who is spared the risk of having to travel in a locked-up truck and risk suffocating, or the young boy who drowned on the shore, anything that we can do to help that happening once is a saving grace," Little said.

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Labour is joined by National's support parties ACT and United Future, which both support a rise in the quota.

Parliament's Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Trade Select Committee has also asked the government to urgently consider its ability to raise the quota.

A review of the quota is planned for next year, but Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse has refused to bring that forward.

The official United Nations agency for refugees has urged New Zealand to play its part in easing the crisis. Spokesman for the UNHCR Adrian Edwards believes this country needs to share the burden and think beyond their own domestic concerns.

"We have individual actions by one country, primarily focused on its own domestic concerns. Those really aren't making inroads into dealing with the global problem," Edwards said.

Around 250 refugees have been accepted into the country since the financial year began in July, according to Immigration New Zealand figures.

Those refugees have come from a variety of places including Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan - but none are from Syria, where nearly eight million people are internally displaced by the multi-faceted and highly destructive civil war.

Almost four million people have fled the country.

However, the government allowance for 100 refugees from Syria (within the 750 quota) has been filled. Eighty three have arrived since 2012, with 17 still to come.