BRITAIN will take in just 20,000 refugees over the next five years, Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday, which saw MPs respond with boos of disappointment.

The Conservative-majority government went against recommendations made last year by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which stated Britain should offer help to 30,000 people.

But only 4,000 refugees fleeing war-torn home countries will be helped a year and being offered “five-year humanitarian protection visas,” according to Mr Cameron.

He claimed that Britain’s £1 billion contribution — old money included in its promise to spend 0.7 per cent of the Budget on aid — surpasses promises made by other EU countries.

However, Germany pledged sanctuary for 800,000 people and, on Monday, an extra £4.4 billion to pay for housing and social security.

Interim Labour leader Harriet Harman said that the “crisis is immediate” and that the Tory PM’s plan will do little to improve the situation caused by war-triggered power vacuums in the Middle East and north Africa.

Foreign aid money will be redirected to councils to “ease the burden” for the first year of helping refugees, Mr Cameron said.

Ms Harman criticised him for calling them a “burden” and for not recognising that highly skilled and child refugees could become British doctors and nurses of the future.

Mr Cameron responded by saying Britain is “able to decide its own approach” as it’s not part of the Schengen Agreement.

He attempted to defend his plan of helping a figure 40 times smaller than Germany’s by saying that Britain should use “the head and the heart” in deciding what to do.

Mr Cameron claimed that he was “deeply moved by images” of refugees — in particular the soul-shattering photo of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi who was found washed up on a Turkish beach after the dinghy he and his family were trafficked in capsized.

“The UK has been unwilling to share responsibility for refugees arriving in Europe,” said Amnesty International UK’s refugee expert Steve Symonds.

He added: “It shouldn’t have taken a photograph to get politicians to start to do the right thing, but this news offers a vital lifeline to thousands of Syrians.”

“We all need to acknowledge there is no single measure that can immediately solve the current crisis, and no one country can achieve its resolution all by itself,” Mr Symonds continued.