THE Bishop of Worcester, Rt Rev Dr John Inge, has called on the prime minister to increase the number of Syrian refugees being resettled in the UK to a minimum of 50,000 over the next five years.

Dr Inge is one of 84 Church of England bishops who have signed the letter calling on David Cameron to increase his current offer to accept 20,000 refugees over the next five years to 50,000.

Referring to the situation in Syria as “one of the largest refugee crises ever recorded”, the bishops write that “a moral crisis of this magnitude calls each and all of us to play our parts”.

“We believe such is this country’s great tradition of sanctuary and generosity of spirit that we could feasibly resettle at least 10,000 people a year for the next two years, rising to a minimum of 50,000 in total over the five year period you foresaw in your announcement. Such a number would bring us into line with comparable commitments made by other countries. It would be a meaningful and substantial response to the scale of human suffering we see daily.”

In addition to “recognising and applauding” the announcements made by the prime minister, the bishops offer help from the Church of England in encouraging their churches to provide welcome, housing and foster care to refugees as well as to support the government in its ongoing efforts.

Speaking on behalf of the bishops, the Rt Rev Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, said: “The Archbishop of York recently said that the current situation has rightly been described as a refugee crisis but it is also a time of opportunity for us as a country and for our wider continent. The opportunity before us is to rise above narrow self-interest, however defined, and to embrace the highest parts of our humanity.

"We recognise that both the prime minister and his government responded to calls from the country for there to be a programme of resettlement and we are grateful to him for responding to those calls.

"However there is a real urgency to this issue with those increasingly being forced from their land as their homes are literally bombed into the ground.

"As the fighting intensifies, as the sheer scale of human misery becomes greater, the government’s response seems increasingly inadequate to meet the scale and severity of the problem.

"It is disheartening that we have not received any substantive reply despite an assurance from the prime minister that one would be received. There is an urgent and compelling moral duty to act which we as bishops are offering to facilitate alongside others from across civil society.”