Thousands of life jackets have been laid out on the grass in Parliament Square in London, as world leaders meet at the United Nations in New York to discuss the refugee crisis.

The 2500 jackets used in the one-day “life jacket graveyard” installation were all worn by those who tried to make the crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Chios.

The charities involved — including the UNHCR, the International Rescue Committee and Médecins Sans Frontières — are hoping the display will have an impact as leaders meet to try and come up with an international plan in approaching the refugee and migrant crisis.

More than 600 of the life jackets on display were used by children, but most of them are pretty useless.

A lot of the life jackets provided by people smugglers are virtually fake, and actually soak up water instead — several of those displayed were sliced open.

A similar installation on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge park last week. Photo: Getty.

Ahmed, a refugee who came from Syria in 2013, said for him the display was “so disturbing”.

“The last time I wore a life jacket I was crossing from Turkey to Greece,” he said.

“We were on a boat with 88 people, women and children, in a dinghy.

“I remember one woman came with a little child and we had to put the lifejacket on the child, to fasten it, and we figured out that the lifejacket was fake.”

“It was too late. People are still doing it. They’re still prepared to do it.”

At the end of 2015, a record 65.3 million people were either refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced, the UN estimated.

This year alone, 300,000 people have made the crossing into Europe and the death rates continue to rise.

– ABC