THE HAGUE – Millions of euros in donations flooded into aid
groups Friday from across Europe and the US from people heart-broken by photos
of a drowned Syrian toddler lying washed up on a Turkish beach.
Under pressure at home to act, British Prime Minister David
Cameron said Britain would put up an extra £100 million (137 million euros,
$153 million) in humanitarian aid for the Syrian crisis, bringing London’s
total contribution to the conflict to more than 1.0 billion pounds.
And the children’s charity UNICEF reported that donations
had sky-rocketed since the picture of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying face
down on the sand, his little 
shoes still firmly tied on his feet, went viral.
shoes still firmly tied on his feet, went viral.
“When the image really hit the web, page views spiked over
149 percent over same time previous day.”
The International Olympic Committee also launched an
emergency two-million-euro ($2.2 million) fund, as the picture of Aylan, still
dressed in blue shorts and a red T-shirt, triggered a wave of emotion, despite
deep divisions among European governments about how to act.
“There is an enormous response from the public, the tide of
indifference is shifting,” Christian Peregrin, spokesman for the Malta-based
Migrant Offshore Aid Station, told AFP.
The group, working to help migrants seeking to cross the
Mediterranean from Libya, had by Friday received a record 600,000 euros
($666,500) in pledges.
“Before that, 10,000 euros in a day would have been a good
day,”
he said.
he said.
Source: AFP
Post a Comment