Nicola Sturgeon has pledged Scotland will do “everything possible” to help tackle the migrant crisis as she told how she had been reduced to tears by images of a young child washed up dead on a beach.
The First Minister said in Scotland “we stand ready to help offer sanctuary to refugees who need our help” as she criticised David Cameron, accusing the Prime Minister of taking a “walk on by on the other side approach” to the growing international situation.
Clearly emotional, Ms Sturgeon made her comments as Mr Cameron faced increasing demands to stop “dragging his feet” and allow more refugees into Britain.
The SNP leader is now writing to the Prime Minister calling on him to change his approach. She also announced a special summit would be held on Friday to look at what could be done in Scotland.
Ms Sturgeon told MSPs she had wept at the sight of news pictures from a Turkish beach showing the three-year-old child – thought to have died alongside his elder brother and mother when a boat capsized en-route to Greece.
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon said: “As First Minister of Scotland, I pledge that I will ensure that Scotland does everything possible to help this refugee crisis.
“I will be far from the only person reduced to tears last night at the picture of a little boy washed up on the beach. That wee boy has touched our hearts, but his is not an isolated tragedy.
“He and thousands like him whose lives are at risk is not somebody else’s responsibility, they are the responsibility of us all.
“So, I am angry, very angry, at the walk on by on the other side approach of the UK Government.”
She added: “I implore David Cameron to change his position and change it today, and I pledge as First Minister of this country that we stand ready to help offer sanctuary to refugees who need our help.”
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale also criticised Mr Cameron’s response to the crisis.
She said: “This week we’ve seen pictures of women in the sea, desperately trying to keep their babies afloat, fellow human beings left to suffocate in the back of lorries because of evil traffickers and refugees perilously packed on to boats unfit for the tides ahead.
“This morning almost every paper in the land carried a picture of a boy washed on to the shore.
“We have a prime minister who says showing more compassion, taking in more refugees, is not the answer.”
She called on Ms Sturgeon to “convene an urgent meeting with Scotland’s council leaders, party leaders and people in this Parliament and other relevant government agencies so that Scotland can speak with one voice and match our compassion with the action we are all willing to take”.
The First Minister told her she had already set up a summit, to be held tomorrow, with humanitarian organisations, including the Scottish Refugee Council, leaders of councils, civic organisations and religious leaders already invited.
“I extend today an invitation to the opposition party leaders to attend that summit as well,” she added.
Ms Sturgeon later described the UK Government’s stance in relation to the crisis as “utterly shameful”.
“We have repeatedly made clear to the UK Government our determination that Scotland plays a full part in efforts to offer sanctuary to those in desperate need,” she said in response to a question from SNP MSP Rod Campbell.
“The UK Government’s refusal to take part in the EU’s collective efforts on relocation and resettlement is, in my view, utterly shameful.”
She added: “I am determined that Scotland plays its full part. But for us to take refugees as I want us to do, the UK Government first has to accept to take its fair share, and I call on David Cameron to do so.”
The SNP leader said other European countries, such as Iceland, Sweden and Germany, had taken “a lead on moral grounds” as she called on all member states of the EU to find a solution to the crisis.
The First Minister also said Mr Cameron and the UK Government must stop using their party’s stance on immigration “to get in the way of a human response to a humanitarian crisis”.
To applause from a number of MSPs within the chamber, she said: “David Cameron and I don’t always see eye to eye on immigration but this is not about immigration, this is about refuge and asylum, and we must respond as human beings.
“We simply cannot walk by on the other side or that little boy that we all were so touched by will just become one of many, many more. We cannot, must not, have that on our consciences.”
Ms Sturgeon called on the Prime Minister to show compassion first, followed by leadership.
“Because if we show both of these things then we can demonstrate that the proud traditions that Britain has in welcoming refugees have not died in the depths of a Tory debate about immigration.”