Britain’s aid for Syrian refugees will top £ 1 billion

BRITAIN will act with “our head and our heart” by giving thousands of stricken Syrian refugees safe passage to the UK, David Cameron vowed yesterday.

It is thought the thousands will come from camps bordering Syria.

There was no indication Britain would resettle any of the hundreds of thousands of desperate people who have made perilous Mediterranean crossings by boat to reach Europe over the past few months.

Mr Cameron said Britain has a “moral responsibility” to help to tackle the worsening humanitarian crisis engulfing the Continent which has seen hordes of desperate refugees flee war- ravaged Syria, as well as Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa.

Mr Cameron also pledged to boost UK humanitarian aid spending on the crisis to more than £ 1billion to help refugee camps in Syria, Turkey, Jordan and the Lebanon.

Britain has already welcomed 5,000 Syrian refugees since 2011, including 1,000 last year.

The United Nations suggested the UK will take another 4,000 but Downing Street insisted no decision had been made on numbers.

Details of the refugee plan are still being thrashed out after Mr Cameron was caught off guard by the public reaction to harrowing images of little Aylan Kurdi who died with his brother and mother trying to reach the Greek island of Kos.

Mr Cameron pledged another £ 100million for refugee camps on Syria’s borders, bringing the total UK contribution to more than £ 1billion, making this our largest response to a humanitarian crisis.

In Madrid yesterday, Mr Cameron said admitting refugees “can only be part of the answer” to the migration crisis and a comprehensive approach was needed, including using aid to alleviate suffering in the countries from which migrants come.

Some £ 60million of additional UK funding will help those still in Syria.

The rest will go to neighbouring Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, where Syrian refugees now account for a quarter of the population. Mr Cameron said Britain would continue efforts to stop people- smuggling gangs and carry on operations to save migrants in the Med, which have rescued 6,700 people.

“Britain will act with her head and her heart,” he said. “For those economic migrants seeking a better life, we will continue to work to break the link between getting on a boat and getting settlement in Europe, discouraging those who don’t have a genuine claim from embarking on perilous, sometimes lethal journeys. For genuine refugees fleeing civil war, we will act with compassion and continue to provide sanctuary.” Asked about the number of refugees who could be admitted, Mr Cameron said: “There is not a number of people we can take that will bring this crisis to an end.

“It is clear that when you are dealing with a crisis of that scale, then resettling refugees cannot be the answer to the problem.

“But Britain is a moral country with a moral conscience and we respond rightly to humanitarian crises and that is why we will be taking thousands of refugees.” A United Nations refugee agency spokeswoman seemed to pre- empt the process by welcoming a plan for 4,000 refugees to move to Britain.

“We welcome very much the move to increase resettlement spaces for Syrians in the UK,” she said. “Those spaces are going to be critical to the lives and future of 4,000 people.”

There has been intense political and public pressure on the Prime Minister to rethink his policy.

More than 340,000 people have signed a petition calling for the UK to “accept more asylum seekers and increase support for refugee