UK opposition leader urges Europe to do more for refugees

LONDON

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has urged European governments to do more in the worst refugee crisis since the second world war.

Corbyn spoke Wednesday evening at a rally organized by Stand Up Against Racism and Fascism NGO and also called U.K.’s Tory government to take more refugees into the country.

He said: “Turkey has already accommodated 2 million refugees….Germany has already taken several hundred thousands and the other European countries. Surely we can do a bit better than that. “

“Governments of Europe have got to do far more...to prevent those people drowning in seas,” he added.

More than one thousand people gathered for the “Refugees Welcome” event at Camden Centre in King’s Cross to show solidarity with refugees and call the British government to review its decision of taking in 20,000 refugees over the course of next five years and to allow more refugees into the country.

Jeremy Corbyn urged the European governments to prevent wars to end sufferings across the world.

He said: “We are here because we can…we are here because we are part of a decent, solid, huge humanitarian group. We demand the governments of Europe and the western world to prevent that suffering by preventing the wars and by preventing the exploitation of people… That’s why we are here tonight. that’s our answer to Europe, that’s our answer to Xenophobes.”

“Further bombing, further intervention, further boots on the ground, further walls is not going to solve the problem,” he added.

Other speakers, including Diane Abbot, Labour party MP and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, gave speeches and urged for more to be done for refugees.

The U.N. estimates that more than 220,000 victims have died since the civil war began and 10 million have been displaced -- 6 million internally.

According to the U.N., there are 2.18 million Syrian refugees registered in Turkey alone as of Nov.1.