By IANS,
London : Human rights organisation Amnesty International has criticised European leaders for “miserably” failing to resettle refugees from Syria, BBC reported Friday.
An Amnesty International report says that only 10 European Union (EU) members have offered to take in 12,000 refugees, now thought to number around 2.3 million.
The 28-member bloc says its priority is providing help to Syria’s 6.5 million internally displaced people and those hosted in other countries.
Since 2011, most Syrian refugees have travelled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. But this year some 6,000 have reached EU member state Bulgaria which has appealed for financial help from Brussels to respond to the influx.
In September, Sweden became the first EU member state to offer Syrian refugees permanent residence. More than 14,000 Syrians have sought asylum there in the past two years.
Germany has resettled 1,000 refugees and plans to admit another 9,000.
Britain says it has no plans to resettle or provide temporary protection to Syrian refugees, although individual asylum claims are considered on merit.