Thousands of pro-refugee supporters have taken to the streets of London to urge the Government to provide sanctuary for asylum seekers.

It comes ahead of a high-level UN summit in New York hosted by Barack Obama during which world leaders will thrash-out a blueprint for an international response to large movements of migrants and refugees fleeing conflicts.

Pressure groups including Oxfam, Medecine Sans Frontieres and the Stop the War Coalition and marched along Park Lane with banners bearing slogans such as "I welcome refugees" and "No to Islamophobia, No to war".

Image: Groups included Oxfam, Solidarity with Refugees and Stop the War Coalition

Activists chanted "Theresa May, you will say, refugees are welcome here" and organisers Solidarity with Refugees called on the prime minister to show leadership at Monday's summit by affirming Britain's stance as a society open to refugees.

Solidarity with Refugees director Ros Ereira said: "I really hope she is going to set the tone for what kind of a country we can be post Brexit and with her new leadership.


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"Hopefully she will want to portray us as an open, tolerant, welcoming society that wants to play an important role on the global stage and lead an appropriate global humanitarian response."

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According to the UN's refugee agency, this year more than 3,200 refugees and migrants have died or gone missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe out of almost 300,000 who have attempted the journey.

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Last September former Prime Minister David Cameron announced that over five years Britain would accept a total of 20,000 refugees sheltering from Syria's civil war in neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon.

Home Office figures have revealed that in the first nine months of the scheme only 2,646 people had been resettled across 118 local authorities; just over 13% of the total.

The data prompted Liverpool Council to declare the resettlement scheme a "tragic, bureaucratic failure".

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Ms Ereira said: "We were really excited to hear the agreement was made we would be settling 20,000 over five years. Obviously I was always going to wish it would be more and better than that - but it was a huge step in the right direction.

"We are not on track to be meeting that commitment at the moment and of course we need to be doing more.

Image: Would you be willing for more refugees to move to your area?

"The situation is growing, it is not decreasing - it is not going away and there are people dying and we need to stop that happening."

A recent Sky Data poll revealed that out of 1,833 Sky customers, 63% of people surveyed believe Britain should take fewer refugees, a 16% increase from a year ago, and 66% said they would not be willing for more refugees to move to their local area. The Data was weighted to the profile of the population.