sa国际传媒

Tom Fletcher asked people to put pressure on world leaders

The British public were urged today to help Syrian refugee children get an education by signing the .

The plea came from Tom Fletcher, the former UK Ambassador to Lebanon and now聽Director of Global Strategy for the

Tom appeared on the BBC鈥檚 flagship radio news show Today, which has more than seven million listeners each week. He said world leaders should back a 聽in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

Speaking about the growing refugee crisis in the sa国际传媒 that is spreading into Europe, he added: 鈥淭his is not a crisis that we suddenly discovered over the summer. This is something that has been growing for almost five years.

鈥淥ne in three people in Lebanon now is a refugee. So the Lebanese are really struggling and they鈥檝e gone through many of the questions that we鈥檙e facing now in the UK.鈥�

The plans to help one million children 鈥� published by the charity in conjunction with A World at School and GBC-Education 鈥� were written after consultation with the governments of Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

The three reports 鈥� one for each of the countries, which all border Syria 鈥� warn that a lack of donor funding is leaving vulnerable children out of classrooms and at risk of child labour, early marriage, exploitation and extremism.

Tom told the Radio 4 programme that the United Nations General Assembly was meeting in a few days to determine the for the next 15 years.

He said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking for people to back the #UpForSchool Petition to put pressure on these world leaders to provide the resource for this plan. It鈥檚 backed by the British government, it鈥檚 backed by the UN envoy Gordon Brown, it鈥檚 backed by business.鈥�

The petition is a youth-led campaign that has been signed by more than nine million people and it will be handed in to the UN General Assembly. It calls on the international community to keep its promise to get every child around the world into school and learning.

Tom Fletcher talks to school students in Lebanon

Asked about measures to help end the Syrian conflict 鈥� now in its fifth year 鈥� Tom said: 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 about just putting bombs into this problem, it鈥檚 about putting books in people鈥檚 hands.

鈥淲e need to get hope to those kids who would otherwise be coming in our direction, hungry and angry and without hope and easy prey. If we don鈥檛 put books in their hands someone else will put swords in their hands. It鈥檚 as simple as that.鈥�

He told the British listeners that the UK had done a lot during his time as ambassador in Beirut to help refugee children.

Tom added: 鈥淭here are kids going to school today in Lebanon and across the region who have been kitted out with British textbooks. They鈥檙e only going to school because of the British people.鈥�