LONDON—British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Friday that Britain will take in thousands more Syrian refugees amid growing calls for the government to show greater moral leadership in the refugee crisis engulfing Europe.
Cameron said Britain will expand its existing resettlement scheme, which has already brought a few hundred of the region’s most vulnerable refugees to the United Kingdom.
“Given the scale of the crisis and the suffering of people, today I can announce that we will do more, providing resettlement for thousands more Syrian refugees,” Cameron said Friday morning at a news conference in Portugal.
He said Britain had a “moral responsibility” to help refugees and that those selected will come directly from refugee camps on the Syrian border, not from among asylum-seekers who have already made it to Europe.