LONDON
More than 150,000 people have signed a petition urging the government to allow more asylum seekers into the U.K., a day after the British premier said the country could not allow more refugees from the Middle East.
The online petition is likely to pave the way for a parliamentary debate on the issue and put more pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative government when parliament returns next week.
The petition, which is still open for signatures on the parliament's website, says: “There is a global refugee crisis. The U.K. 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."
On Thursday, the petition gained more than 150,000 signatures, which can be debated inside the parliament and receive a government response.
Meanwhile, British media coverage of the tragic deaths of two Syrian brothers – three-year-old Aylan Kurdi and his five-year-old brother Galip – caused public outcry.
One of the most circulated free London dailies published Thursday a full front page photo of a Turkish gendarme officer carrying the lifeless body of Aylan after his body was washed up on the Turkish shore Wednesday. Other British newspapers and tabloids also used the tragic photos taken Wednesday in Turkey’s popular tourist destination, Bodrum.
On Wednesday, Cameron said: “We have taken a number of genuine asylum seekers from Syrian refugee camps and we keep that under review, but we think the most important thing is to try to bring peace and stability to that part of the world."
“I don’t think there is an answer that can be achieved simply by taking more and more refugees."
In response to Cameron's remarks, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, said Thursday: “I am seriously concerned by the British prime minister's position that the U.K. should not provide protection to more refugees from the Middle East."
"While it is true that long-term peace should be brought to Syria and other war-torn countries, it is also true that the U.K. has a legal and moral obligation to offer shelter to those who flee war and persecution."
Muiznieks said that at the moment, the U.K. was doing much less than other European countries, like Germany or Sweden, which gave refuge to thousands of Syrians. "Additional tragedies and shocking pictures could be avoided if political leaders had the courage and determination to uphold human rights standards and common European values,” the commissioner said.
Germany was the largest recipient of new asylum claims in the EU in 2014, with an approximate 173,100 asylum applications.
The U.K. received 31,300 new applications for asylum by the end of 2014.
According to United Nations, there are 1,938,999 registered refugees in Turkey as of August 25, 2015.
