Portugal is one of the top European countries when it comes to compassion towards Syrian refugees and a willingness to offer them new homes.
In an international poll released today by the non-governmental organisation International Rescue Committee (IRC), of the respondents from Portugal, 21% were ‘greatly in favour’ of hosting Syrian refugees in Portugal, with 46% saying they were ‘in favour.’
Of those who responded, only 9% said they would not welcome the arrival of Syrian refugees to Portugal, with 18% marginally in favour.
The empathy score for Syrian refugees was highest in Ireland at 68%, Spain at 67% and long-suffering Germany at 65%.
The countries where a welcome would be less than warm are Slovakia with 73% against resettling Syrians in their country, followed by Romania at 63%, France at 55% and the Czech Republic at 53%.
Among the main reasons expressed by those who fear the resettlement of Syrians in their country are 'pressures on the social security system, public finances and services such as schools and hospitals and also an increased security risks from terrorist attacks or criminal acts.'
The IRC is not daunted and reports an overall 76% empathy score from those European countries polled where citizens expressed some degree of compassion towards the refugees.
"These results show that Europeans still have heart," said the president of the NGO, David Miliband, the former British Foreign Minister.
"At a time when toxic rhetoric has managed to infect the political agenda, there is a clear signal here for governments to mix compassion with competence in response to the refugee crisis. Security, economic wellbeing and fair treatment of refugees can and should go together," said Miliband.
The issue of refugees and migrants will be the subject of a summit at the United Nations in New York next week, followed by a Leadership Summit on the Global Refugee Crisis chaired by US President Barack Obama.
Portugal has been ready and willing to take in refugees with the government asking that its allocation from Brussels of over 3,000 people be raised to 10,000. The total number of refugees relocated in Portugal so far has been 514.
This feeble figure is no fault of the Portuguese system nor an unwillingness to help, but rather stems from bureaucratic hold-ups at the processing camps in Greece and Italy.
