Thangam Debbonaire
MP for Bristol West
Shadow Secretary of State for Housing and Homelessness

We need to give refugees safe and legal routes to enter the UK, instead of forcing them into leaky boats and the hands of criminal people traffickers.
I put this to the Prime Minister yesterday. She seems to agree that we need to process asylum claims as close as possible to conflict zones, but she still fails to grasp the magnitude of the refugee crisis going on around the world. We can, and should, do more.
The war in Syria alone has created 5.6 million refugees, many ending up in overcrowded camps in neighbouring countries. Lebanon, a small, poor country, has taken more than a million people. Indeed, refugees now make up one quarter of the Lebanese population. Meanwhile, the UK has taken 800 of these people. The Prime Minister should be ashamed of this meagre display of generosity.