LONDON
British Home Secretary Theresa May has suggested that Britain should lead international effort to end the situation in Syria and defeat Daesh.
May’s remarks came Tuesday afternoon at an emergency House of Commons debate over the worst refugee crisis that Europe has witnessed since the World War II.
The debate started with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and her criticism over the recently revealed Conservative government plans to take 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years.
“The crisis is now. Helping 4,000 refugees this year is not enough…We can do more than this,” Cooper said and asked May how many refugees will be resettled by the end of the year.
Refraining from pronouncing a clear number, the home secretary said the government was working closely with the U.N. Refugee Agency on the issue.
Home Secretary Theresa May echoed Prime Minister David Cameron’s comments and defended the Tory government’s approach to the crisis.
“As this crisis had grown, the government has done and will continue to do everything it can to help those in immediate need and such a huge task demands a comprehensive approach,” May told the parliament.
Theresa May set out what her government would do to tackle the refugee crisis in Europe under four titles.
May said those four titles were “providing aid directly to those who need it, stopping people from putting themselves in danger as they seek our help, resettling those who most need our protection and leading international efforts to bring this situation to an end as swiftly as possible”.
May also underlined the necessity to break the link between the “human trafficking gangs who prey on vulnerable people” and resettlement in Europe.
The emergency parliament debate came following a petition that asked the government to help more asylum seekers and more than 430,000 people signed it online.
The debate continued in the afternoon.
