AFP/London

Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday promised Britain would fulfil its “moral responsibilities” in the migrants crisis but resisted growing pressure at home and abroad to accept a bigger share of Syrian refugees.
Cameron said he had been “deeply moved” by images of a three-year-old Syrian toddler found dead on a Turkish beach after a migrant boat sank but he stopped short of making any new commitments.
“We do care,” Cameron told reporters during a factory visit in northeast England, adding: “I think Britain is a moral nation that always fulfils its moral responsibilities”.
He said Britain would keep the number of refugees it accepts “under review” although he added: “There isn’t a solution that’s simply about taking people, it’s got to be a comprehensive solution”.
Britain has accepted 216 Syrian refugees under a special government scheme over the past year and around 5,000 Syrians have been granted asylum since the conflict there broke out in 2011 - far fewer than countries like France, Germany and Sweden.
More than 4mn Syrians have fled the war.
Britain has also opted out of a quota system for relocating asylum seekers within the European Union despite growing calls in the EU for fairer distribution.
A petition to parliament urging Britain to accept more refugees has garnered nearly 190,000 signatures, while campaign group Avaaz said more than 2,000 Britons had volunteered to host refugee families.
“Mr. Cameron, Summer is Over... Now Deal With The Biggest Crisis Facing Europe Since WW2,” read a headline in The Sun, Britain’s best-selling newspaper, next to the photo of the dead Syrian boy on a Turkish beach that dominated the front pages.
Several editorials harked back to the times when Britain accepted huge numbers of refugees before and after World War II, and around the Balkan Wars.
“We have done it before, and can do it again,” Alan Travis wrote in The Guardian, while David Aaronovitch in The Times said the international community as a whole should “rediscover the humanity of 1945”.
On the streets of London, views on the issue varied.
“I can’t believe that we haven’t done anything before now,” said 45-year-old Victoria Buurman as she walked with her shopping in central London.
“I think it’s disgusting that we have to get to a point where children are dying before we even recognise that we’re not acting morally. It’s horrific,” she said, breaking into tears.
But Souvik Ghosh, a 26-year-old research student from India, said Britain should not take any more migrants.
“There should be some limitations. Because otherwise this country’s economic system will be overwhelmed,” he said.