More aid should be provided to help less vulnerable refugees remain closer to home, Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and the Weald has said.

Mrs Grant said a funding shortfall for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) which has provided aid to around two million Syrian refugees, had a big role to play in the numbers of people seeking refuge in Europe and beyond.

Since the beginning of the year, Mrs Grant said the number of people receiving the lifesaving food vouchers has dropped by a massive 700,000.The WFP has also sharply reduced the value of the vouchers to a maximum of 14 dollars a month for the remaining 1.4 million people within the programme.

Mrs Grant said: “And it shouldn’t need to be that way if the rich countries that have persistently agreed to give 0.7% of their gross national income in overseas aid actually honoured that commitment.

“Britain has done so but many countries, including some of our European neighbours, have not. There is still time for that to change but they must act quickly to help stem this perilous exodus.”

But taking in vulnerable refugees should still be a priority, Mrs Grant added. So far the migrant crisis has a seen a surge in the in arrivals of young asylum seekers in Kent.

Last week, the Swattenden Centre in Cranbrook was reopened to cope with a surge in the numbers of young asylum seekers entering the county, with 100 youngsters being taken into care in just one month alone.

There are now about 720 unaccompanied children seeking asylum being looked after by Kent County Council, up from 630 at the beginning of August.