GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel faced a backlash yesterday from the Bavarian wing of her conservative alliance over the European refugee crisis.

Ms Merkel was set to discuss the crisis with partners in her coalition government as thousands of desperate refugees from the Middle East continued to enter the country.

The Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister-party of the chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union criticised the decision to open Germany’s borders to refugees stuck in inhospitable Hungary.

But the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the third coalition partner, urged humanitarian aid for those reduced to marching across central Europe in search peace and refuge.

“No decent person can remain cold and dismissive in the face of such suffering,” said SPD parliamentary group chairman Thomas Oppermann.

He insisted that refugees should be fairly distributed in Europe and that countries should not shirk their responsibilities.

“Whoever refuses to do their part calls into question whether they can be part of Europe,” he said.

In Cyprus, emergency services rescued 114 people late on Saturday after their boat made a distress call some 46 miles off the southern coast.

All 114 travellers, including Palestinians from Syria, were in good health. They included 19 women, 30 children, five infants and 60 men.

Pope Francis said that the Vatican would take in in two displaced families fleeing “death from war and hunger” and urged every Catholic diocese, parish, convent, monastery and sanctuary in Europe to do the same.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whose government along with that of Russia is pressing for peace in Syria, praised those EU countries that welcomed refugees and expressed hope that others would “compensate on shortcomings.” But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected opposition calls to take in even a limited number of refugees from Syria, claiming that the country was too small to accept them — despite its open-door policy to all prospective Jewish settlers from around the world.

Argentina, whose Levantine community numbers some 4 million, pledged on Friday to welcome more Syrian refugees on top of some 100 already sheltering there. Neighbouring Uruguay will accept seven new Syrian families later this year.