LONDON
European leaders should "hang their heads in shame" for not letting more Syrian refugees into their countries says Amnesty International in a research paper published on Friday.
Neighbouring countries of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt are shouldering the burden of looking after 97 percent of the over two million Syrian refugees. This is compared to eighteen EU countries, including UK and and Italy, who have made no resettlement pledges. Twenty-seven EU countries have offered places to a mere 2,340 refugees. Germany was by far the most generous, pledging to take 10,000 refugees.
With the increasing number of refugees facing harsh winter conditions, Salil Shetty, Amnesty Secretary General, urged the EU to open its borders, to provide safe passage, and "halt these deplorable human rights violations".
The research noted that as of December 9, nearly a third of the country’s population of 6.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes in Syria. There are more than 2.3 million registered refugees in total.
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