BERLIN - Germany pledged billions in new funds for refugees Monday, as Chancellor Angela Merkel said the tens of thousands of people flowing into her country in Europe’s biggest migrant crisis in decades would lead to profound change. As European leaders stepped up efforts to tackle the historic crisis, France also said it would take 24,000 more asylum-seekers under a European plan to relocate 120,000 refugees from hard-hit frontline countries. Meanwhile, the poor and desperate kept coming, both on the land corridor through Turkey and the Balkans and on overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean on journeys that have claimed thousands of lives this year. Underscoring the danger brought home so graphically by last week’s picture of three-year-old Aylan lying drowned in the surf, a Greek passenger ferry on Monday sent its lifeboats to rescue 61 migrants whose boat was at risk of sinking off Lesbos island. And migrants rescued by Italian coastguards on Sunday said five of their group were still missing. Merkel, at a joint news conference with her vice-chancellor, said: “What we are experiencing now is something that will ... change our country in coming years.” “We want the change to be positive, and we believe we can accomplish that.” Germany is expecting at least 10,000 more refugees to arrive on Monday, an official in the south of the country said.(AFP)