Yesterday, America also expanded its role in the crisis, with John Kerry, the US secretary of state, announcing an increase in the number of refugees the US would take each year. Mr Kerry said 85,000 refugees would be taken from around the world next year, up from the current figure of 70,000, and that total would rise to 100,000 in 2017. Many, though not all, of the additional refugees will be Syrian, although others would come from strife-torn areas of Africa.