A report by Amnesty International says a lack of leadership from wealthy nations will lead to a worsening of the refugee crisis.

Italy’s coastguard reported that more than 6,000 migrants were rescued from the Mediterranean yesterday, one of the highest numbers recorded on a single day.

The report highlights the fact that Lebanon, which has a similar size population to Ireland, is hosting more than 1.1 million refugees from Syria.

Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland Colm O’Gorman, says the EU needs to share more responsibility.

He said: “The EU’s policy of putting up high walls, putting up barriers to stop people getting here has failed.

“We have seen people in their thousands die in the Mediterranean, we are seeing appaling human rights violations as a consequence of that, and most recently we have seen the EU enter into these most shocking deals.

“For instance, the one that we saw most recently was the one with Turkey. But right now the EU is also pursuing really dodgy deals to limit the flows of refugees and migrants with countries like Libya and Sudan.”