The Syrian war has created the largest number of refugees. The European border control agency has estimated that 23,000 hopeful migrants arrived in Greece alone last week.

As some European leaders are increasingly trying to prevent refugees and migrants from settling in their countries, more and more refugees are dying in their desperation to reach safety.

Here are some of the ways you can help at home.

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• In the first six months of this year, 137,000 refugees and migrants crossed the central Mediterranean Sea route from Libya to Italy, travelling in appalling conditions in unseaworthy wooden boats and rubber dinghies. That number has now topped 150,000.
   
• Syrians are the largest single group of refugees trying to get to Europe. More than 4 million Syrians have been forced to flee a war that is now in its fifth year. Of those refugees, at least 1.6 million are children.
   
• Eritreans have accounted for 12 per cent of maritime arrivals, while Afghans have made up 11 per cent. Citizens of Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan and Iraq also made up a significant number of those trying to find a safe place to call home.
   
• The issue of maritime rescues in the Mediterranean has been a fraught one. In October 2013, a boat carrying hundreds of refugees from Libya to Italy sank near the island of Lampedusa, killing 368 people.
   
• Despite this, refugees continue to try to make the Mediterranean crossing in increasing numbers.
   
• At home, there are more than 28,000 living in Australia on Bridging Visas. Meanwhile, there are 4472 asylum seekers being held in detention in Australia, on Manus Island and Nauru. 

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• The International Committee of the Red Cross is delivering humanitarian aid to areas like Aleppo, Homs and rural Damascus, as well as assisting the millions of Syrians who have fled to neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. Red Cross Red Crescent is helping more than 3.5 million Syrians by providing food parcels and blankets, supplying hygiene kits with toothpaste, toilet paper and soap, and restoring sanitation systems. 
   
• In Australia, the Red Cross works to improve the plight of asylum seekers and refugees, by providing emergency financial relief and  linking people to housing, education and social support programs.
   
• The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is providing water, mosquito nets, tents and healthcare to Syrian refugees. Outside of Syria, thousands of refugees have spent years in exile. With their savings drained and employment opportunities thin on the ground, millions of people are relying on UNHCR for assistance and protection. As little as $15 can provide two families with jerry cans to transport clean water.
   
• The International Rescue Committee is responding to the humanitarian crisis on the Greek island of Lesbos. Each day some 2000 refugees are arriving on Greece's shores. Most of them have fled the Syrian civil war. 
   
• Save the Children is working with Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt providing families with food, clothing and shelter. The organisation is also conducting large-scale food distributions in Jordan. Meanwhile, in the Za'atari refugee camp, Save the Children has helped to feed over 130,000 children and their families. The organisation is also distributing children's clothing, mattresses, blankets, heating fuel and stoves in Lebanon. 
   
• Médecins Sans Frontières is working rapidly to vaccinate children arriving at refugee camps to prevent the spread of measles. They are also distributing mosquito nets and helping improve basic living conditions to prevent a large-scale epidemic. The organisation also sets up medical clinics in the camps.  
   
• Oxfam is on the ground in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt providing people with clean drinking water, hygiene and sanitation packs and relief supplies such as blankets and stoves. Outside Jordan's large Za'atari refugee camp, Oxfam is providing cash to vulnerable refugees living in informal tent settlements.
   
• The Refugee & Immigration Legal Centre is an independent community legal centre specialising in all aspects of refugee and immigration law, policy and practice. 

Get involved with grassroots groups

• Save the Children runs early learning programs, which help newly arrived migrant and refugee children settle into Australia, as well as initiatives that help young people transition out of youth detention. 
   
• Amnesty International has local action groups across Australia that work to raise awareness about a range of human rights issues, including asylum seekers. These groups meet monthly to discuss issues and decide practical ways to raise awareness, raise funds and take action to have human rights impact. 
   
• Amnesty's Welcome Dinner Project aims to connect new migrants with Australian residents around the dinner table. The aim of these pot-luck shared dinners is to create a platform for meaningful connection, sparking friendships between people of diverse cultures who are living in close proximity to one another but have not had an opportunity to meet in a supported environment.
   
• West Welcome Wagon is a volunteer-run registered charity supporting asylum seekers in Melbourne's west. It supports asylum seekers in the local community by providing good quality donations of material goods, emergency food relief, neighbour to neighbour social support, as well as special projects such as in-home English support and community engagement.
   
• Montmorency Asylum Seekers Support Group also raises funds and collects food for the ASRC food bank. Volunteers also support individuals in detention centres and in the community.  
   
• The Brigidine Asylum Seeker Program is looking for volunteers to teach English to new arrivals. 

Donate, Collect

• The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre is an ideal base to donate foods and goods to refugees and asylum seekers. People can donate to the centre's Food and Aid Network online through Ceres Fair Food. People can also order food online from Coles or Woolworths and have it delivered to the ASRC. The centre also accepts pots and pans and new linen sets from Kmart, as well as gift cards from Gift Cards online.