Tens of thousands to march across Europe in solidarity with refugees

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of London and other European capitals on Saturday afternoon for demonstrations in support of refugees across the world.

The march to Parliament Square in the UK's capital is expected to be the biggest national outpouring of support for refugees. Almost 90,000 people had registered online to say they would be attending in London and thousands more are expected at parallel events across the country.

Jeremy Corbyn, the newly elected leader of the Labour party, said his first act after the election would be to participate in the London demonstration where he was expected to speak at 17:00 GMT.

By midday on Saturday, several thousand people could be seen protesting at the march through central London to Prime Minister David Cameron's office, brandishing placards reading: "Open the Borders" and "Refugees In, Tories Out".

Simulataneous protests were also reported in Copenhagen, Lisbon, Berlin and Vienna.

"This rally is making clear that the government is wrong in their stance towards refugees," one of the protesters in London, Dusan Petkovic, told AFP.

Cameron had a belated change of heart on letting in more Syrian refugees as the migrants crisis in Europe escalated and last week agreed to take in 20,000 over five years.

The premier said they would be taken directly from UN refugee camps and the British government has refused to take part in a European Union quota system to share out refugees who have already reached Europe.

Petkovic dismissed the 20,000 number as "pathetic".

Another protester, Marc Faux, said: "The government's response is ignoring the problem we have right now."

Representatives of participating organisations including the Refugee Council, Amnesty International, the Syria Solidarity Movement and Stop the War Coalition are also expected to address the crowds in London.

The protest was set up less than two weeks ago by Ros Ereira, 38, from north London, and within a week tens of thousands of people had pledged they would come and show their support, reported the Telegraph.

The rally comes ahead of a summit of European leaders in Brussels scheduled for 14 September to deal with the crisis that will be attended by British Home Secretary Theresa May and her EU counterparts.

After the photograph and story of drowned three-year-old Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi was shared across the world last week, support for the plight of refugees has reached new heights.

“We have to ensure that refugees can reach Europe safely. There needs to be either official safe transport provided, or if people could apply for asylum from outside the EU they would be able to enter by official routes,” event organisers said on Facebook ahead of the demonstration.

“We need to prioritise the fast processing of asylum claims from people from particularly dangerous regions, such as Syria. We can’t allow any EU countries to close their borders or build fences.”

At the same time as rallies in support of refugees take place, anti-migrant events are reportedly due to take place on Saturday in countries including the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

The biggest mass migration in recent history has divided Europe, with Germany pushing for compulsory quotas within the EU but eastern European nations - primarily Hungary - rebuking the proposal.

The International Organisation for Migration said more than 430,000 people had crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, with 2,748 dying or going missing en route.