There has been a call for Britain to take more Syrian refugees from the MP for Saffron Walden Sir Alan Haselhurst.

Britain should take more Syrian refugees says the MP for Saffron Walden Sir Alan Haselhurst.

Sir Alan said: “We should play our part.”

Speaking in the wake of a toddler’s body being found washed up on a Turkish beach, Sir Alan condemned the people trafickers as “vile”.

Three-year-old Aylan Kurdi had been in a small boat with his five-year-old brother Galip and their parents Rehan and Abdullah. They were trying to cross from Turkey to Greece by making the journey from Bodrum to Kos, which is a short crossing. The two children and their mother drowned when the boat sank. It emerged later that the family had applied in March to emigrate to Canada. Abdullah’s sister, Temma Kurdi who has lived in Vancouver for some years, was trying to sponsor them, but their application was refused. Like the rest of the world, this week she saw her nephew’s tiny body as it lay on the shore.

Sir Alan said: “We should take more immigrants and I think we will take more. We should play our part. There has been a change of attitude nationally. When I was on doorsteps before the general election people were concerned about the number of immigrants coming here.

“Now, people have been moved by seeing the tragic scenes of what is happening and they are saying we should show compassion. They are seeing things in a different way. They see people fuelled by desperation and traffickers are making money out of that, which is vile.”