Responding to David Cameron’s comments this evening that the UK will take in thousands more refugees, Amnesty International UK’s refugee expert Steve Symonds said:

“If this really represents a substantial change on the government’s part to providing thousands more resettlement places, that would be a significant step forward, but we’ve been disappointed before by what have turned out to be woefully inadequate commitments.

“There are now four million refugees just from Syria, almost all of whom are living in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan - often in squalid and highly precarious conditions. In January last year, the Government promised to resettle hundreds of them and earlier this year David Cameron said this would be increased, albeit modestly. But over the whole of this period, the UK has taken a pitiful 216.

“It remains to be seen whether the government will go far enough this time, or honour the commitments it makes to tackle the ongoing refugee crisis. Taking in our fair share of refugees is essential. But we urgently need a collective, co-ordinated response from Europe as a whole. The UK must be part of this if David Cameron wants to claim to be doing the right thing in response to the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.”