Singer Bob Geldof offers homes to refugees

The Irish singer and aid campaigner Bob Geldof has said that he is prepared to take in four families at his properties across the United Kingdom, as attention focuses on the refugee crisis that is gripping Europe.

Geldof, who spearheaded the Live Aid concert for Ethiopian famine victims in 1985, said he would be prepared to take in three families at his residence in Kent, in the south of England, and another family at his flat in London.

"I'm prepared - I'm lucky, I've a place in Kent and a flat in London - me and Jeanne would be prepared to take three families immediately in our place in Kent and a family in our flat in London, immediately, and put them up until such time as they can get going and get a purchase on their future," Geldof said, mentioning his partner.

His comments came after an international outpouring of sympathy following the release on Wednesday of a shocking image showing a three-year-old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, washed up on a beach after he drowned alongside his brother and mother trying to reach a Greek island from Turkey.

Aylan and his family are only the latest in a long line of harrowing deaths and terrible conditions facing refugees, many of whom are from Syria, as they try and reach Europe.

European governments are now under increased pressure to take in greater numbers of refugees.

"I can't stand what is happening. I cannot stand what it does to us," Geldof told RTE Radio in Ireland.

"I look at it with profound shame and a monstrous betrayal of who we are and what we wish to be. We are in a moment currently now that will be discussed and impacted on in 300 years time," he added, referring to the picture of Aylan Kurdi.