Refugee crisis: Theresa May under pressure to increase number of refugees taken by Britain

The Home Secretary is set to attend an EU summit over the crisis

Monday 14 September 2015 12:00 BST

Theresa May says Britain will continue to help ‘those in immediate need’ (Reuters)

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Theresa May is under pressure to increase the number of refugees Britain will accept ahead of an EU summit to deal with the crisis.

The Home Secretary is expected to attend the meeting of internal affairs ministers in Brussels, where politicians will discuss how to cope with the estimated 380,000 people who have travelled to Europe for sanctuary this year.

The former Foreign Secretary David Miliband, now head of the aid agency International Rescue Committee, said: “The UK’s decision to annually resettle 4,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years is the equivalent of accepting the number arriving on a single day on the beaches of the Greek island of Lesbos, where the IRC is providing humanitarian assistance.”

The Home Office said Ms May stood by her comments to the House last week, when she said: “As this crisis has grown, the Government have done and will continue to do everything we can to help those in immediate need, and to stop the dreadful situation they are fleeing.”