Some 6,500 people have contacted the Red Cross in the Netherlands about volunteering, following the organisation’s call for help on Monday.

Of them, most have agreed to help out with the influx of refugees to the Netherlands but around 1,200 have said they would like to become structural volunteers.

The Dutch Red Cross said on Monday it is to concentrate all its energies on the refugee crisis and was looking for 1,000 new volunteers to help. The organisation describes the situation surrounding the rise in asylum seeker numbers as the biggest aid operation since the 1990s.

The volunteers will work alongside the existing volunteers in providing a human face to the reception centres being set up around the Netherlands and in manning the Welcome Shops where refugees can collect their first parcels of necessities donated by local people.

The organisation is also asking schools to become involved by collecting children’s clothes and getting pupils to draw pictures for refugee children.