If David Cameron is serious about helping Europe’s refugee crisis, he should make provision for 240,000 people to come to the UK, according to the Green Party.
The UK’s 60 million population is 12% of Europe’s – so the Greens believe the UK should support 12%, or 240,000, of the two million Afghans, Eritreans and Syrians fleeing desperate situations [1].
Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, said that the UK has a “humanitarian responsibility” and that although the 240,000 may at first “sound daunting”, it’s “no impossibility”.
Bennett said:
"Stated as a single number, 240,000 sounds daunting, but put into scale, one refugee for each 266 Britons, an increase of 0.4% in the population, then that’s no impossibility.
"And we have to make it possible, for Britain has a humanitarian responsibility, as the world's sixth-richest economy, as a state whose unilateral, and sometimes illegal, actions have helped to create the political and military chaos in the region from which many of the refugees are fleeing, to not be the foot-dragger, the resistor, that it is now, but instead live up to our proud tradition of providing refuge over centuries.
"This is a global humanitarian crisis, we must play our part in tackling it, and the British people in huge numbers, through petitions and offers of help, have shown they are prepared to take on their responsibilities."
ENDS
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