Leading charities condemn British Government's response as "clearly inadequate"
A coalition of 27 international humanitarian organisations, refugee assistance organisations and human rights advocacy groups have written to Prime Minister David Cameron to call for him to do more to help refugees in 2016.
Image credit: UK GovernmentThe charities and NGOs include Asylum Aid, the Refugee Council, Amnesty International, Oxfam and the International Rescue Committee.
According to the Refugee Council, the charities condemned the British Government's response so far to the refugee crisis as being "clearly inadequate".
The charities' open letter stated: "Last year's announcement that the UK will resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years was a welcome first step, but given the numbers of people searching for safety across the globe, this response is clearly inadequate: it is too slow, too low and too narrow. The UK can and should be doing much more to ensure that refugees are not compelled to take life-threatening journeys or forced into smugglers' hands."
The letter continued: "We therefore join leading members of the legal community in endorsing the following four refugee principles and believe that, as a matter of urgency:
"• The UK should take a fair and proportionate share of refugees, both those already within the European Union and those still outside it.
"• Safe and legal routes to the UK, as well as to the European Union, need to be established.
"• Safe and legal routes within the European Union, including the UK, should be established.
"• There should be access to fair and thorough procedures to determine eligibility for international protection wherever it is sought."
Refugee Council Chief Executive Maurice Wren said: "There are no easy answers to a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude. However, the solution must not be to spend another year impassively watching on while desperate people drown or are forced to endure a march of misery across the continent as they try to find a safe haven or to be reunited with their loved ones.
"This year the Prime Minister must open his heart and show true statesmanship by welcoming far more refugees to the UK, enabling them to travel here safely and legally to live lives free from violence, tyranny and oppression."
Penny Lawrence, Oxfam's Deputy Chief Executive, said: "Last year over a million desperate people made the hazardous journey into Europe seeking sanctuary. The numbers are huge but each one is a person: a brother, a mother, a daughter, a loved one. The Government's response to this crisis in Europe has been lacklustre at best, mean spirited at worse. In the face of such levels of human need the Government needs to do more to provide a safe haven."
In response to the letter, a Government spokesman told BBC News: "The United Kingdom has a long and proud history of offering sanctuary to those who genuinely need our protection, with each claim for asylum judged on its individual merits. The terrible images we have seen in the last year have moved us all, strengthening our resolve to help prevent more people suffering such a fate."
The spokesman said the UK was providing life-saving aid to those most in need, both in and around Syria and in Europe, and was working with other countries to "ensure systems are in place which properly address unfounded claims for asylum".