Insight - As refugee crisis grows, U.N. agency faces questions

Syrian and Afghan refugees fall into the sea after their dinghy deflated some 100m away before reaching the Greek island of Lesbos, in this September 13, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/Files

GENEVA (Reuters) - It took a photograph of a drowned toddler washed up on a Turkish beach to achieve what a United Nations agency with 9,300 staff and a budget of $4 billion could not: soften European views on the refugee crisis.

The chief of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees Antonio Guterres conceded as much on Sept. 4 when he described a fundamental shift in European attitudes that enabled him to push for the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of refugees across the European Union.