Britain will accept up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next four and a half years, David Cameron has announced.
The Prime Minister said sanctuary would be given to refugees who are currently in camps neighbouring the war-ravaged nation.
Britain will use the established UNHCR process to identify those most in need and will expand its existing Syrian vulnerable persons relocation scheme.
Those who arrive will be granted five-year humanitarian protection visas and councils and devolved administrations will be helped to support them as the Government retools its aid budget.
In a statement to the Commons, Mr Cameron said: "We have already provided sanctuary to more than 5,000 Syrians in Britain and have introduced a specific resettlement scheme, alongside those we already have, to help those Syrian refugees particularly at risk.
"But given the scale of the crisis and the suffering of the Syrian people it is right that we should do much more.
"We are proposing that Britain should resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over the rest of this parliament.
"In doing so we will continue to show the world that this is a country of extraordinary compassion, always standing up for our values and helping those in need.
"Britain will play its part alongside our other European partners but because we are not part of the EU's borderless Schengen agreement or its relocation initiative, Britain is able to decide its own approach."
Interim Labour leader Harriet Harman said: "Is our national priority to keep people out at all costs or to give sanctuary to those fleeing from their homes?
"Is being British to be narrow, inward looking, fearful of the outside world, or is it about being strong and confident and proud to reach out to those seeking refuge on our shores?
"It must be the latter."
Ms Harman urged the Prime Minister to confirm how many refugees would be allowed into Britain this year.
And she said Britain should call for an emergency EU summit to work out a coordinated response to the crisis.
Ms Harman added: "The crisis is immediate."
Mr Cameron replied: "Obviously we want to get on with this process. It will depend in part on how well the UNHCR can do with processing people in the camps to come to the UK.
"Checks obviously have to be made about the people we will be receiving."
Mr Cameron said he had been on a call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel before coming to the Commons, adding: "She was very grateful and welcomed the statement we are making today."
EU leaders are due to meet on September 14, Mr Cameron said.
Labour leadership favourite Jeremy Corbyn said Britain should take in refugees from other countries who are currently living in camps in Calais and across Europe, as well as Syrians in the Middle East.
He said: "At the interior ministers' summit next Monday will Britain now sign up to be part of a European-wide response to assist refugees from all parts of the world and ensure they have somewhere safe to go and Britain will play a much greater role than it does at the present time, including sorting the misery and desperation of people living in those camps in Calais and other places.
"They are human beings too who need some help and support."
Angus Robertson, the SNP's leader in Westminster, welcomed the Government's decision to accept more refugees but said it was a "shame" it is being spread over the next five years.
He also suggested Mr Cameron is not working constructively with Britain's EU partners on the issue, a claim dismissed by the PM.
Mr Robertson added to Mr Cameron: "Will you make sure you will not use the refugee issue as an excuse to revisit military intervention in Syria?"
He also questioned when the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) would be established in the current parliament.
The PM said the ISC would be established "in the coming days", noting he was confident of making progress.
Mr Cameron defended Britain's existing refugee relocation schemes and the new plan to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees.
He added: "We welcome the fact (First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon) has offered to take 1,000. We think that'll have to be increased now with this more generous approach."
Conservative former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell said the Government is "clearly right" to further increase Britain's "immense humanitarian support" for the Syrian people.
He told the PM the failures of the international community to protect civilians and tackle the causes of the "Syrian catastrophe evoke memories of the failures over the Rwandan genocide, where the international community was left guilty and shamed".
Father of the House Sir Gerald Kaufman accused Mr Cameron's Government of doing less than Neville Chamberlain's administration in 1939 to help refugees fleeing conflict.
He noted his parents looked after a Jewish girl who arrived in Leeds on the Kindertransport, adding: "I think it is sad that we are doing, with the Government, less than Neville Chamberlain did.
"You say you're going to take in 20,000 refugees over five years. The Germans took in 10,000 on one day. What kind of comparison is that?
"I recognise the financial problems, I recognise the assimilation problems, but if we don't do it now we will live to regret it for the rest of our lives."
The Manchester Gorton MP said his constituents wanted Britain to welcome more refugees.
Mr Cameron said many of the 20,000 refugees taken by Britain from the Syrian refugee camps will be children, adding the programme is the "modern equivalent of the Kindertransport".
He said Britain's financial contribution also needs to be recognised as it outranked France, Germany and other countries.
Conservative Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) asked Mr Cameron: "Can some priority be given not just for Christians but also for the Yazidis who have been so poorly treated in Syria?"
The PM replied: "I think you make a very important point. In drawing up the criteria, what we will be looking at is people who are most vulnerable and there's growing evidence that people are vulnerable not only within Syria but some are vulnerable within the refugee camps themselves.
"So Yazidis or Christians or others, particularly perhaps children or women at risk of abuse, these will all be in our scheme."
Home Affairs Committee chairman Keith Vaz called for Mr Cameron to consider accepting some refugees who are already in Calais and elsewhere in Europe who have ties to the UK.
The Labour MP said: "I agree with you that direct recruitment should be from the camps.
"However there will be exceptional cases of people who have arrived in Europe, some of whom I have met in Calais, who have ties with the United Kingdom who may need to be processed who have already arrived in mainland Europe."
London Mayor Boris Johnson sought confirmation that Britain would not reduce its aid effort in camps near Syria as it increased the numbers of people moved to the UK.
He said: "The whole House will agree we should all be proud of what (DfID) are doing and have been doing over many years."
Mr Cameron replied: "We will continue to invest in these refugee camps, a billion pounds has gone in already. We will keep up that investment.
"But by taking people from the camps, that is the right answer for Britain, the right answer for those people and of course it will release some of the capacity for those camps."
Tory right winger Philip Davies (Shipley) said: "The facts of the matter are that those refugees who have already made it into the EU are already safe and we can't make them any safer. Not all people coming in are genuine refugees and we're already taking hundreds of thousands of migrants into the UK every year, which we are struggling to cope with.
"Can I therefore urge you to have regard to the silent majority in this country and base your decisions on common sense and being practical - and not based on the affliction of so many other politicians which is some kind of emotional craving to be seen as compassionate irrespective of the practicalities of the situation."
Mr Cameron said: "The point you make is important, those who have already made it to Europe are to some degree or other far safer and less at risk than those still stuck in Syria or in very precarious positions, sometimes in refugee camps or on the borders of them."
Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) said: "Do you agree the US, which contributes only half as much as the UK in Syrian aid as a proportion of GDP, and which has accepted scarcely any asylum seekers should also respond and do more, and will you ask the US administration to do so?"
Mr Cameron said: "I always look forward to discussing this with President Obama and let's be fair, they are the largest aid donor to Syria and I am sure we will go on encouraging them and others to do more, just as we have kept the promise we made about 0.7%."
Labour's David Lammy (Tottenham) said: "You will know when Turkey invaded Cyprus, we took 50,000 Cypriots, during Idi Amin's reign in Uganda we took 30,000 Asian Ugandans. We took over 20,000 Vietnamese boat people in a short space of time.
"Why have you limited your help to the Syrians to 4,000 a year?"
Mr Cameron said: "We have said 20,000 refugees which is I think the right response for Britain."
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