The EU is predicting that 3m more migrants could arrive in the 28-nation bloc by the end of next year, with the refugee emergency already providing a stern test of EU capacities to offer shelter and welcome.

The badly decomposed body of a baby has been found on the shore of Kos island, on the frontline of the migrant influx coming from Turkey.

German chancellor Angela Merkel, reflecting on “a moving, in some parts breathtaking, weekend behind us,” said that all EU countries could help to accommodate the human tide from the Middle East and Africa.

Greek authorities have launched a search and rescue operation in the eastern Aegean after a boat carrying dozens of migrants sank between the small islands of Agathonisi and Farmakonisi, near the Turkish coast.