Will a photo of a drowned boy give Europe a political push?

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Meantime, the photograph of a 3-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach has galvanized a worldwide debate about the plight of refugees. Aylan Kurdi was one of 12 Syrians who died trying to reach the Greek island of Kos. A Turkish police officer carried his lifeless body ashore, not far from the resort town of Bodrum. Aylan, his 5-year-old brother and their mother all died when a trafficker abandoned them in high seas.

  Their father survived and today prepared to take their bodies back home to Kobani, Syria.

• ABDULLAH KURDI, Father (through interpreter):

  The man steering the boat saw that the sea was high, the wave was high. We were hit by the first wave, but he escaped. He jumped into the water and escaped away. I tried to take over the steering, but we were hit by another wave. The boat capsized. I grabbed my children and my wife. They died.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  We take a closer look at how their story is being seen in Europe with Steve Erlanger — he's the London bureau chief for The New York Times — and our own PBS NewsHour special correspondent Malcolm Brabant, who has been reporting extensively on the refugee crisis for us in a number of European countries.

  And we welcome you both.

  Malcolm, you are in Copenhagen. What is the reaction there and in Denmark to this picture, to what people are seeing unfold?

• MALCOLM BRABANT:

  I think people are distressed very much by this throughout Europe.

  I think you have to be extremely hard-hearted not to be moved by this. But one of the more interesting comments has come from a man called Martin Henriksen, who is the spokesman for integration for the Danish People's Party, which is a party that kind of cracks the whip here.

  He says that it is very distressing, but that the blame for this lies with the traffickers and also with ISIS and with President Assad in Syria. And he says that the problem is, it is these people, it's these people who are causing the deaths of people like Aylan, and not Europe, because there are others out there who are saying that Europe is to blame for this.

  For example, Turkey's president is saying that Europe really is turning the Mediterranean into a graveyard as a result of its policies. But this is something that is being rejected by the right, which controls Denmark.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Steve Erlanger, in from where you are, in London, what do you see? How do you see the reaction, not only in Britain, but as you look across the continent?

• STEVEN ERLANGER, The New York Times:

  Sometimes, pictures move events and are not just moments of events.

  And this seems to be one of those pictures. It's had an enormous impact. Many American papers didn't run it on their front pages. But nearly all the British papers did and many of the papers in France too. And it has put enormous moral and political pressure on government leaders, much as the truck on the Austrian highway with 71 decomposing bodies did.

  It gives a sense of human tragedy and it gives a political push. It's particularly pushed David Cameron, who has come back from vacation and yesterday had a rather callous remark about how taking more refugees won't solve the problem. And while that's true, he's trying to balance his own domestic political problems, which are very much anti-immigration.

  And the French and Germans are together trying to push a unified E.U. plan against an E.U. that is not unified, that works by consensus. So it is possible that this picture and the outrage among publics that it has caused will push these politicians to come up with a solution that is less chaotic and less callous than what we have seen so far.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Malcolm Brabant, is that what you are seeing, that maybe this one picture and the events that have led up to it really could bring these European leaders to come together to do something?

• MALCOLM BRABANT:

  Well, it does appear as though the European Union is planning to do something in the coming weeks, that they're coming up with a plan whereby about 160,000 refugees will possibly be distributed around Europe.

  Now, there are countries which have got an opt-out from this. And those include Denmark and also the United Kingdom. But it appears that the pressure is really mounting on David Cameron, especially as a result of a campaign fromThe Independent newspaper, where they have had this Twitter campaign saying that refugees are welcome, that there is a sense that maybe David Cameron is going to come up with a new plan to take some refugees directly from the front-line states which are acting as hosts for them at the moment, maybe from Jordan or from Turkey or from Lebanon.

  But certainly it looks as though Britain will have to open its borders to some degree. But I don't think that is necessarily going to be the case in Denmark, where the governing coalition — well, the governing party, backed up by the Danish People's Party, is fairly resolute.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Steven Erlanger, is there one or more — who are the European leaders who are going to be making a difference in the coming days and weeks on this?

• STEVEN ERLANGER:

  Well, usually, in the E.U., it's Germany and France together. If they can get together, particularly with Italy, that is really what tends to push the matter forward.

  And they have come out with a joint statement, Merkel and Hollande, today which called for the setting up of reception centers, which is far too late, but centers to house migrants and asylum-seekers and feed them and, most importantly, screen them and decide whether they're real refugees or whether they're economic migrants, and then can be sent home.

  But, secondly, they also want to set up a mandatory system whereby refugees and asylum-seekers are shared out to the rest of the European Union, because, at the moment, as the French say, only five countries have taken 75 percent of all the asylum-seekers.

  The problem is, as I say, E.U. works by consensus. The polls are against it. The Hungarians are against it. A lot of the new members from Central Europe are against mandatory quotas. So it's going to be difficult. But the E.U. commission is working on ideas that perhaps some countries won't take refugees, but provide money instead for these centers.

  But, as Malcolm says, there's a meeting of interior justice ministers, not until the 14th of September. And then that might be followed by a summit meeting of actual leaders. So this — this tragedy still has weeks to go, it seems to me.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Malcolm Brabant, as we said, you have been reporting on this for weeks and weeks now. If these kind of steps are taken, is that going to make a difference?

• MALCOLM BRABANT:

  Well, I have been talking to my contacts on the Greek island of Lesbos to see what is happening now.

  And it seems as though there is this enormous rush to get into Europe. I was talking to somebody who regularly goes down to the beaches every morning to welcome these refugees. And she says you look out of your window now and there are sometimes 20 or 30 boats; 3,000 people a day are now arriving on Kos. There are supposed to be maybe as many as 70,000 people waiting just across the water in Turkey to come across.

  The traffickers are sending them across in waves. There are now 15,000 people who are in the town of Mytilene, which is the capital town of the island of Lesbos, 15,000 refugees in an island with 25,000 Greeks. The rush is just enormous to try to get into Europe. And remember that the weather is just about to change in September.

  It's been rough all week across the Aegean, but the traffickers are sending these people across. The boats are really struggling to get across. They're very poorly constructed. They have very weak outboard motors. And people are getting into the water. And it's been a miracle this week that there haven't been more drownings.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  All of which raises the question whether the kinds of things we're hearing could happen will make any difference.

  Well, I know you're going to continue to report on this, you and Steven Erlanger. We thank you both.

  Malcolm Brabant, Steven Erlanger, we thank you.