84 bishops write UK PM to take in more refugees

Eighty four Church of England bishops have revealed that they wrote to David Cameron last month urging him to accept at least 50,000 refugees from Syria.
Their letter said the PM’s decision to accept 20,000 by 2020 was not an adequate response and said most British people wanted to offer more help.
The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Paul Butler, said it was “disheartening” they had not had a “substantive reply”.
No 10 said it had a “comprehensive approach” to the refugee crisis.
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In addition to offering to accept 20,000 refugees from camps bordering war-torn Syria, the government has provided £1bn in aid to Syria, with an extra £100m given to charities to help thousands of people displaced by the conflict.
But in a statement released when the bishops made their letter public, Bishop Butler said: “As the fighting intensifies, as the sheer scale of human misery becomes greater, the government’s response seems increasingly inadequate to meet the scale and severity of the problem.
“It is disheartening that we have not received any substantive reply despite an assurance from the prime minister that one would be received.
“There is an urgent and compelling moral duty to act which we as bishops are offering to facilitate alongside others from across civil society.”
Downing Street said the government wanted to tackle “the causes and consequences” of the refugee problem and that the UK was the second biggest donor in the world to helping refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
Credit: BBC News

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