Ahead of the Syrian Donation Conference in London, ComRes conducted a poll of British adults on behalf of BBC Local Radio, exploring attitudes towards refugees coming from Syria. The survey also tested perceptions of the Government’s role in dealing with people coming to Europe from countries like Syria.
There has been an increase in the proportion of Britons saying that Britain should allow fewer refugees from countries such as Syria and Libya to come and live in this country.
Two in five (41%) now say Britain should allow fewer refugees, compared to 31% who said the same in September 2015, just after the publication of the photos of Aylan Kurdi.
There has been a decrease of 10 percentage points since September 2015 in the proportion of Britons who say that Britain is not doing enough to take its fair share of the responsibility of dealing with people coming to Europe from countries like Syria (January 2016: 29%, September 2015: 39%).
18-24 year olds are significantly more likely than those from any other age group to say that they support refugees from Syria and Libya being placed in their local area (67% of 18-24 year olds say this, compared to 53% of 45-54 year olds and 44% of those aged 65+).