Britain to take ‘thousands more Syrian refugees’: Cameron

Britain will take in thousands more Syrian refugees, Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday amid growing pressure at home and abroad to address the crisis.

"Given the scale of the crisis and the suffering of the people, I can announce today that we will do more, and will welcome thousands more Syrian refugees under existing schemes which we'll keep under review," he told reporters in Lisbon.

"Britain will act with our head and our heart, providing refuge for those in need while working on a long term solution to the Syria crisis," he added.

Cameron said as well "Britain will provide an extra 100 million pounds (137 million euros, $153 million) in humanitarian aid for the Syrian crisis, bringing its total contribution to more than 1.0 billion pounds."

"That is the UK's largest-ever response to a humanitarian crisis. No other European country has come close to this level of support," he told a news conference in Madrid.

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Cameron has faced mounting pressure to accept a greater share of Syrian refugees, especially after the publication of images of a three-year-old Syrian toddler who was found dead on a Turkish beach.

Britain has accepted 216 Syrian refugees under a special government scheme over the past year and around 5,000 Syrians have been granted asylum since the conflict there broke out in 2011 -- far fewer than countries like France, Germany and Sweden.

with AFP