Thousands of migrants and refugees have arrived in mainland Greece, as European leaders squabble over how to defuse growing crisis.

Two ships carrying 4,200 people from Lesbos island docked in the port of Piraeus last night, with those on board expected to journey to Athens later today.

More than 160,000 people have arrived in Greece so far this year, already surpassing the number from 2014.

Already under significant financial burden, Greece is struggling to provide for the numbers arriving on its shores, estimated at 23,000 in the last week, according to the EU’s border agency Frontex.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos called his French counterpart Francois Hollande to ask that the situation facing Greece be discussed at a senior European level.

Italy is also struggling with thousands of migrants making the perilous journey from Libya to its shores, and both countries have called on their European partners to take their fair share.

Yesterday, authorities in Budapest closed the city’s main international rail station in an effort to prevent migrants and refugees boarding trains to Austria and Germany. The thousands of migrants left stranded at the station after spending over €120 on train tickets ended with chants of “shame on you” from the mostly Syrian crowd.

Hungary has also begun construction of a controversial 100-mile-long fence in an attempt to prevent further migrants entering the EU through its southern border.

Meanwhile, Germany has said that it would welcome any Syrian refugees fleeing the ongoing civil war, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on other EU countries to follow suit.