Portugal should accept more refugees than quota: official

Portugal should accept more than the 1,500 refugees included in its European Union quota, Lisbon mayor Fernando Medina, told foreign journalists on Monday at a press conference.

When asked by Xinhua how many refugees the country could accept, Medina said this decision was to be taken by the government and that no exact figure had yet been determined.

Medina said the municipality of Lisbon had transmitted a "strong political message" that the country must focus on dealing with the humanitarian crisis and pointed to the importance of working alongside different institutions.

Medina added that Portugal had a "significant" history of taking in refugees, but that the current crisis was of a larger dimension than what the country had faced in the past.

Europe, which is split in terms of how to deal with the crisis, should respond as soon as possible, he said.

The municipality of Lisbon recently revealed a fund of 2 million euros (2.23 million U.S. dollars) to help put an end to the crisis.

Tens of thousands of refugees arrived across northern Europe over the weekend. At least four million people have escaped Syria since the conflict started in 2011, and around 2,500 migrants died or disappeared this year trying to reach Europe. Endite