UK urged to accept Syrian refugees

UK aid organizations have urged the British government to accept more Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict in the Arab country.

On Friday, British charity Refugee Council and the UK-based humanitarian aid organization, Oxfam, called on the UK government to admit more Syrian refugees as the number of people who have fled Syria topped three million.

The Refugee Council censured the UK in a tweet for the “pitiful” number of Syrians resettled in Britain.

“There are over 1 million refugees from Syria in Lebanon. UK’s plan to resettle ‘several hundred people’ simply isn’t good enough,” the charity said.

This is while Oxfam released a statement, saying Britain could do more to resettle refugees from Syria.

“To date, it (UK) has pledged several hundred refugees’ places [of residence] and only 50 Syria refugees have been resettled by June 2014,” said Oxfam.

The statements by the organizations came after the United Nations reported earlier in the day that the number of Syrian refugees fleeing violence in the country has surpassed three million.

According to the UN, a further 6.5 million people were displaced within Syria, meaning “almost half of all Syrians have now been forced to abandon their homes and flee for their lives.”

Most of the Syrian refugees have taken shelter in neighboring countries, including 1.14 million in Lebanon, 815,000 in Turkey and another 608,000 in Jordan. This is while just some 5,000 Syrians have been resettled in countries other than those neighboring Syria through a UN program.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011. According to the UN, over 190,000 people have so far been killed.

CAH/AB