A holocaust survivor has issued an emotional plea to Boris Johnson to change his approach to Ukranian refugees applying to enter the country, in a speech projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover.

Steven Frank asked the Prime Minister to "show some humanity" in a speech arranged and shared by activist group Led by Donkeys.

The Dutchman decried the number of refugees reportedly turned away across the channel.

"Every single person you see in the news stories about Ukraine is a human being, just like you, with hopes and dreams," he said.

"But for the lottery of birth, it could have been you forced to flee for safety with your family. I should know, it happened to me."

Mr Frank recounted his harrowing experience being brought Theresienstadt Ghetto – a camp in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia – and his welcome to the UK after the war.

He said that with The Nationality and Borders Bill – created by Home Secretary Priti Patel and currently being debated in the House of Lords – he would have been sent back to Holland.

"If the Nationality and Borders bill had been in place when I arrived in this country in June 1945, I would have come off that plane, gone to the RAF reception centre, and I would have been denied entry into the United Kingdom," he said.

"I would have been sent, no doubt to a detention centre somewhere, and then put on a plane and sent back to Holland."

The 86-year-old, who now lives in Hertfordshire, drew parallels between his experience and that of the families displaced by the Russian invasion last month, and said the example set by countries around Ukraine

"When you see these Ukranians fleeing, you imagine yourself with the bits of clothes we had on and a little rucksack when we went off to the camps," he said.

"It's a strange fear – I was only seven when I went into the camps – when people you don't like who have come into your country, and you can't understand why they are there or what they are doing.

"But you are frightened because you see the fear and fright in your parents, and you cling on to them and pray and hope for the best, that they can get you out."

He called on the Prime Minister to follow the exampe of "the humanity shown by the people of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and all of the other countries" in allowing refugees in.

"Boris Johnson, please, show some humanity," he said.

"Let some of these people in – let a lot of these people in. They will only show you gratitude, as so many refugees did when they escaped Nazi Germany and came to this country.

"You will find that these refugees, whatever their nationality is, they will be eternally grateful for the hospitality and the safety you have afforded them here.

"Don't turn them away. That's not humanity at all."

The post sharing Mr Frank's speech has been viewed almost 200,000 times in just a few hours.