BY Ian Dunn | September 3 | 
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Catholic leaders call on Prime Minister to step up efforts for refugees
Bishop John Keenan and Cardinal Vincent Nichols lead the call for action after shocking images of a drowned Syrian child but David Cameron remains unmoved
Catholic leaders are leading the call for British Prime Minister David Cameron to take more action to help refugees from Syria.
Bishop John Keenan of Paisley (above) and Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, spoke out after shocking images of a drowned Syrian child washed ashore on a European beach were published in British newspapers papers.
Bishop Keenan responded to the pictures by saying: ‘”Another little one for whom there was ‘no room at the inn.’ Britain let’s be a little more generous! It won’t kill us!”
He also said he would ‘definitely’ take refugees into his diocese ‘if some good politicians can make it possible.’
Cardinal Nichols said that the British public had told him it was ‘a disgrace that we were letting people die and seeing bodies on the beaches when together Europe is such a wealthy place.’
“People are beginning to see the human face of this suffering, so it’s no longer an abstract problem of people who are on the scrounge, it’s not,” he said. “It’s people who are desperate for the sake of their families, their elderly, their youngsters, their children, and the more we see that the more the opportunity for a political response that’s a bit more generous is growing. What is screaming out is the human tragedy of this problem.”
Yesterday the prime minister said ‘taking more and more refugees’ was not the answer to the EU’s current migration crisis.
“We are taking action across the board… the most important thing is to try to bring peace and stability to that part of the world.” Mr Cameron said. “I don’t think there is an answer that can be achieved simply by taking more and more refugees.”
The number of people entering Europe has reached record levels, with 107,500 arriving in July alone. Germany expects to take in 800,000 this year—four times last year’s total. The risks for migrants travelling through Europe were highlighted last week by the deaths of 71 people found in a lorry that had travelled to Austria from Budapest. EU interior and justice ministers will meet in Brussels on September 14 to address the crisis.
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