A football match in Greece on Friday was delayed as players from both teams sat down the start to protest the rising death toll of refugees. All 22 players and the coaching staff on the sidelines were cheered from the stands when they postponed the start of the match by two minutes. The teams, AEL Larissa and Acharnaikos, sat in silence to express solidarity with all of those risking their lives to escape the escalating conflict in Syria.

Just before the match kicked off, a statement was read out on the PA system that criticised the ‘brutal indifference’ of the EU and Turkish governments.

The statement read:

This protest came just days before an open letter criticised the UK’s response to the refugee crisis. More than 120 leading global economists have lambasted the UK government, saying that “it is morally unacceptable for the UK not to play a fuller part in taking in refugees.”

The UK can do more

The economists argue in the letterthat as the fifth largest economy in the world, the UK “can do more.” Since the crisis started, the UK Government pledged to take in 20,000 refugees from the camps on the Syrian border over the next five years.

The open letter, that includes signatories such as former Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, Baron Mark Malloch Brown and the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration, Peter Sutherland, says that this plan is “too low, too slow and too narrow.”

Since the conflict started in Syria, it’s estimated that over 250,000 people have died with 10 million more being displaced. As the crisis continues, thousands more refugees continue to flee conflict and persecution; it is only right that governments. including the UK, do everything they can to limit the suffering of those that need help the most.