Iceland may take in more refugees than the 50 originally planned for 2015 and 2016, the government said Wednesday after a Facebook appeal urged it to welcome more people.
"I think we can add (to the numbers) but I can't and don't want to name a figure," Icelandic Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson told public broadcaster RUV.
An Icelandic author and professor, Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir, created a Facebook page urging fellow citizens to speak out if they wanted Iceland, a country of around 330,000 inhabitants, to take in more Syrian refugees.
By Wednesday afternoon, more than 14,000 people had supported the initiative by joining the page.
Icelanders on the site said they were willing to help, some offering to house refugees while others said they could donate their time, clothes, food and toys, and provide help integrating into Icelandic society.
Bjorgvinsdottir said she was moved by the response.
"What was most surprising was that the positive voices who wanted to help outnumbered the negative ones that are usually louder on the Internet. The Facebook site became a forum for people to express themselves and think together, to offer the assistance they can," she told AFP.
She welcomed the government's review of the situation.
"When an emergency call is sounded you can't hesitate and put people's lives in months of red tape. We want to see decisions taken and executed right away," she said.
In 2014, almost 4,350 foreigners, more than a third of them Poles, immigrated to the volcanic island located in the North Atlantic, according to official statistics.
Many of the several hundred thousand people flocking to Europe are refugees from Syria, where conflict has been raging since March 2011.
Iceland may take in more refugees than the 50 originally planned for 2015 and 2016, the government said Wednesday after a Facebook appeal urged it to welcome more people.
“I think we can add (to the numbers) but I can’t and don’t want to name a figure,” Icelandic Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson told public broadcaster RUV.
An Icelandic author and professor, Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir, created a Facebook page urging fellow citizens to speak out if they wanted Iceland, a country of around 330,000 inhabitants, to take in more Syrian refugees.
By Wednesday afternoon, more than 14,000 people had supported the initiative by joining the page.
Icelanders on the site said they were willing to help, some offering to house refugees while others said they could donate their time, clothes, food and toys, and provide help integrating into Icelandic society.
Bjorgvinsdottir said she was moved by the response.
“What was most surprising was that the positive voices who wanted to help outnumbered the negative ones that are usually louder on the Internet. The Facebook site became a forum for people to express themselves and think together, to offer the assistance they can,” she told AFP.
She welcomed the government’s review of the situation.
“When an emergency call is sounded you can’t hesitate and put people’s lives in months of red tape. We want to see decisions taken and executed right away,” she said.
In 2014, almost 4,350 foreigners, more than a third of them Poles, immigrated to the volcanic island located in the North Atlantic, according to official statistics.
Many of the several hundred thousand people flocking to Europe are refugees from Syria, where conflict has been raging since March 2011.
