New Zealand's Catholic and Anglican Church leaders say they could support at least 1000 refugees in their communities.
Catholic Church Cardinal, John Dew (left) and Anglican Church Archbishop, Philip Richardson. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Millions of people are fleeing war zones in the Middle East and Africa with many seeking shelter in the European Union, and calls for New Zealand to take some of those refugees have grown louder.
Prime Minister John Key confirmed this morning a proposal to accept hundreds of Syrian refugees will be taken to Cabinet today, but gave no exact figure.
Catholic Church Cardinal John Dew and Anglican Church Archbishop Philip Richardson said this morning the response from their parishes has been "overwhelming", and they could support at least 300 four-person families.
Cardinal Dew said there were 650 parishes between the two churches.
"We have the capacity to look after 300 familes, so if only half of those parishes - which is an enormous number of people that we believe we can provide for. And we know that because of the response over the last few days and the people saying 'we will look after a family'.
Anglican Church Archbishop Philip Richardson and Catholic Church Cardinal John Dew. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Meanwhile, a Unicef representative in Lebanon said New Zealand's response to the crisis simply did not cut it, describing the refugee situation as the biggest global crisis since World War II.
New Zealander Luciano Calestini, who is the Deputy Representative for Unicef in Lebanon, said more than a million refugees had come through Lebanon from Syria since the conflict began there - which is a fifth of Lebanon's population.
Mr Calestini said there had been cries for help for many years for international political leaders to take steps to try and resolve this convlict.
"And for many regions that has not happened and of course that's the route cause of this. But nonetheless this sort of spill-over was inevitable. It's something that many of us have been talking about as a very real risk for a long time and now we are seeing it."
Mr Calestini said wealthier countries such as New Zealand were not doing their part.
"If you look at a country like Lebanon, one in five refugees - that's 1.1 million refugees - have been hosted by this poor fragile country for over four years now and the numbers that we continue to hear about in countries like New Zealand, Australia, and other places of a few hundred or a few thousand simply, they simply don't cut it.
"So I think we need a far more serious reflection by policy makers on the contribution they're prepared to make. And it has to be a much much more equitable contribution than we're seeing so far."
While Mr Key has confirmed the proposal to accept more Syrian refugees, on top of the 750 annual quota, will be taken to Cabinet today, Mr Calestini said this still fell short.
"We welcome the conversation at least, that numbers are up for discussion, and a possible increase is a good thing. If 500 is that number then it falls very very far short. There are now 4.1 million refugees. The talk of a few hundred, even a few thousand, frankly is almost laughable in the context of the scale of this crisis," he said.