Liberal Democrats on Herts County Council have called upon the County Council to do more to help refugees from Syria.

Lib Dem health spokesperson Chris White said: ‘We must be in no doubt what we are dealing with here. The BBC’s insistence, along with other media outlets, of continuing to use the term “migrant” has greatly muddied the debate. Many of those desperately seeking a new home in Europe are fleeing civil war and in particular ISIS, the new barbarians. There is a real parallel with those who fled the Nazis before the Second World War and those who fled the Russians at the end of it.

‘Local authorities across the country should respond by taking in refugees. We have a moral and humanitarian duty to do so.

​’The County Council must work with local districts to find a way of saving the ordinary families who have been forced to flee what were once comfortable homes through no fault of their own.

‘We can no longer pretend that this is a minor problem at the far end of the Mediterranean. Nor can any humane person say, like David Cameron, that you can’t solve the overall problem by helping those who are driven into leaving their homes. That policy would mean that you wouldn’t rescue people from a burning building because it did not address the cause of the fire.’

Chris added: ‘We should in particular be helping Kent County Council which has had to pick up the responsibility for looking after unaccompanied frightened children.’ ​