- Title: Chinese top poll as most welcoming attitude to refugees - Amnesty
- Date: 18th May 2016
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (MAY 18, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) SALIL SHETTY, SECRETARY GENERAL AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, SAYING: "Russia is one country which stands out pretty much at the bottom. Russia would remember that the airwaves are controlled by the state, and the state media runs a campaign against migrants, against refugees. So they are fed a very narrow discourse and that of course shapes public opinion, which is very unfortunate."
- Embargoed: 3rd June 2016 00:05
- Keywords: Refugees Welcome Index Amnesty International Salil Shetty Europe migrants asylum r
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK /AT SEA OFF LIBYAN COAST / PIRAEUS, GREECE / BODRUM, TURKEY / ROSTOCK AND HAMM, GERMANY / NEAR BREZICE, SLOVENIA / HORGOS AND BERKASOVO, SERBIA / CALAIS AND COQUELLES-LE-MARAIS, FRANCE
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK /AT SEA OFF LIBYAN COAST / PIRAEUS, GREECE / BODRUM, TURKEY / ROSTOCK AND HAMM, GERMANY / NEAR BREZICE, SLOVENIA / HORGOS AND BERKASOVO, SERBIA / CALAIS AND COQUELLES-LE-MARAIS, FRANCE
- Country: United Kingdom
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- Reuters ID: LVA0074IH12KN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: China has been named the most welcoming country when it comes to refugees, according to a new survey of citizens' attitudes published on Thursday (May 19), with Germany coming second and Britain ranking third.
In its first ever report to record global acceptance of refugees, Amnesty International surveyed more than 27,000 people across 27 countries and found that 80 percent of respondents would welcome refugees into their city, neighbourhoods or homes.
While one in ten respondents said they would let refugees stay in their home, only 17 percent said they would not allow them into their country. Around 73 percent said people escaping war or persecution should be allowed to seek asylum in other countries.
"Human solidarity is very visible, it is clear. Across the world people can feel the pain of those who are having to flee from war and persecution. And they feel that this is an extraordinary situation which needs an extraordinary response," Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty said.
He said the results showed that most government responses to the refugee crisis were not in line with public opinion.
"We are facing a leadership crisis on this issue," he added. "We don't have many people like Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, who stood up in the face of some opposition to say this is an international human rights obligation."
Merkel has faced months of accusations of being too open to migrants, with Germany taking in 1.1 million migrants last year.
Almost all Germans surveyed and 87 percent of Britons said they would allow refugees into their countries.
As the least welcoming country, 61 percent of Russians surveyed said they would not let refugees into the country at all.
"Russia would remember that the airwaves are controlled by the state, and the state media runs a campaign against migrants, against refugees. So they are fed a very narrow discourse and that of course shapes public opinion, which is very unfortunate," said Shetty.
Poland, Hungary and other formerly communist states say immigration, especially from the Muslim cultures of the Middle East, would disrupt their homogeneous societies.
Nearly half of all Chinese respondents said they would let refugees live with them, but only 29 percent of British participants were willing to do so.
Although 86 percent of Chinese participants agreed that governments should do more to help, the Chinese government remains reluctant to resettle refugees fleeing wars or persecution.
According to recent UN refugee agency data, neither China, Russia or any Gulf states have resettled Syrian refugees since the war began.
The World Humanitarian Summit is being convened in Istanbul later this month as the number of people who have been forced from their homes globally hits record levels.
Shetty said it's time for leaders to take action:
"We cannot have this lurching response from crisis to crisis, we need a permanent distribution system, which is based on global responsibility sharing. I think this is the call we are making to governments. This is the call that people are making to governments and they have to listen."
At the first summit of its kind, governments will be asked to commit to tackling forced displacement in a new way - that both meets the immediate needs of the world's displaced, and builds their resilience and self-reliance.
The U.N. refugee agency has said the number of people forcibly displaced worldwide was likely to have "far surpassed" a record 60 million in 2015, including 20 million refugees, driven by the Syrian war and other drawn-out conflicts. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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