A petition to allow more asylum seekers into the UK has reached over 100,000 signatures. This is the figure petitions require for parliament to consider a debate on the subject.
The petition was launched by Katie Whyte, and gained almost 70,000 backers overnight following the publication of photos on 2 September of a three-year-old Syrian boy who had drowned.
The petition reads:
There is a global refugee crisis. The UK is not offering proportional asylum in comparison with European counterparts. We can’t allow refugees who have risked their lives to escape horrendous conflict and violence to be left living in dire, unsafe and inhumane conditions in Europe. We must help.
With an estimated 173,100 asylum applications, Germany was the largest recipient of new asylum claims in 2014. The USA was 2nd with 121,200 asylum applications, followed by Turkey (87,800), Sweden (75,100), and Italy (63,700). By comparison, the UK received 31,300 new applications for asylum by the end of 2014.
(Source: UNHCR 2014 Asylum Trends Report)
David Cameron has so far refused to accept further refugees into Britain, in spite of calls from campaigners and Labour frontbenchers to at least discuss the issue in the Commons.
> Read the petition here.
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