Amnesty International and other leading charities - including the Refugee Council, Oxfam and Save the Children - have written to Prime Minister David Cameron calling for an increase in the number of Syrian refugees resettled in the UK. Government figures released today show that the UK has resettled only 90 refugees from the conflict.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said:

"With at least 3.5 million people having been forced to flee the country because of the civil war, the UK's response to the Syrian refugee crisis is pitiful. Compare this number with Germany, for example, which has committed to resettling at least 20,000 refugees.

“The UK has a proud history of offering sanctuary to those fleeing war and persecution but these figures show the government cannot hold its head high when it comes to resettling Syrian refugees.

“Given the scale of the crisis on Syria's borders, with Syrian refugees in Lebanon amounting to more than a quarter of the total population of the country, for the UK to resettle 90 is nowhere near enough.”

Earlier this month, Amnesty published a report Struggling to Survive: Refugees from Syria in Turkey which found the failure of the international community to deal with the growing number of refugees in Turkey – 1.6 million - has led to a crisis of unprecedented proportions. They are facing push-backs and live fire at the border, and hundreds of thousands are living in destitution.