PM: We’ll take in 20,000 refugees over five years
Daily Express Tuesday September 8 2015 BRITAIN will welcome an extra 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, David Cameron announced last night.
After days of pressure over the migrant crisis, the Prime Minister confirmed a substantial increase in the number of people fleeing the war- torn Middle East country who will be granted sanctuary in the UK.
Under the plan those most at risk will be taken from refugee camps bordering Syria and given five- year humanitarian visas.
Local councils and devolved authorities will be given extra cash to provide accommodation for them.
Rescue
In a statement to MPs yesterday, Mr Cameron said that by resettling the extra 20,000 over the rest of this Parliament “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”.
But senior Tory backbencher Sir Gerald Howarth raised concerns that the new arrivals will put further pressure on housing and local authority services.
The MP for Aldershot praised Mr Cameron’s measured approach but added: “I tell you that in Aldershot we have no spare accommodation.”
Labour MPs were critical of the plan and urged the PM to bring more Syrian refugees to Britain.
The Commons is to hold an emergency debate on the issue today following an application by shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper.
She claimed Mr Cameron’s offer compared unfavourably with the Kindertransport rescue of Jewish children from Nazi Germany in the run- up to the Second World War.
The Kindertransport took 10,000 children in the space of just nine months, she said. “I would urge the Prime Minister to reconsider.”
An opinion poll last night showed a majority of voters do not want more refugees to come to Britain from wartorn countries such as Syria and Iraq.
The ComRes survey for BBC2’ s Newsnight programme found 57 per cent of voters quizzed were opposed to the idea. Around 31 per cent of voters said Britain should admit fewer refugees and 26 per cent thought numbers should remain as they are.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country’s “breathtaking” refugee crisis will bring major change.
Some 20,000 mainly Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi migrants arrived in Germany by bus, train and foot over the weekend and another 11,000 were due to cross its borders yesterday.
Speaking yesterday Chancellor Merkel said: “What we are experiencing is something that will occupy and change our country in coming years. We want the change to be positive, and believe we can accomplish that.”
The politician vowed to protect those in need but said others who stand no chance of getting asylum will have to return to their homes swiftly. Earlier, French President Francois Hollande announced that France is ready to take in 24,000 refugees to help deal with the crisis.
The unprecedented flow across Europe shows no sign of easing, with reports of thousands still streaming into Hungary from Serbia – most of whom are expected to head to Austria and Germany.
And refugees in Hungary were last night scrambling to get on trains and buses out of the country after Austria signalled it was ready to close its borders to undocumented travellers after its temporary “emergency measures” waived the requirement.
Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann said the emergency measures
would be “phased out”. Of the estimated 12,000 that crossed into Austria from Hungary over the weekend only 90 applied for asylum while the rest caught trains to Germany, offi cials said.
Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbot has pledged to resettle a “signifi cant” number of refugees from Syria this year.
Opposition parties have called for an extra 10,000 places on top of the 13,750 already planned.
Cash- strapped Greece yesterday requested emergency EU assistance to deal with the massive infl ux of migrants who reach its eastern islands daily on boats from nearby Turkey. More than 230,000 people have arrived so far this year in the country that is now the main gateway into Europe.
gramme has cut rations for the refugee camps in countries bordering Turkey, making life more uncomfortable there. At the same time, some barriers for migrants travelling northwards through Europe have been removed.
The welcome given by Germany to migrants travelling from Hungary over the weekend has sent out a powerful message to people living outside Europe, whether they be genuine refugees or economic migrants: if you can get to Germany you will be applauded and indulged.
By yesterday German authorities were beating a hasty retreat but it is too late. The sight of the good liberal citizens of Munich turning up at the city’s railway station to applaud arriving migrants will have persuaded many more to undertake perilous journeys to reach the country. However wellintentioned, Germany’s actions over the past few days will result in more deaths.
To be fair to David Cameron, the measures he announced yesterday are better thought out than Germany’s. Britain will be taking its extra refugees directly from refugee camps bordering Syria, not from among migrants already in Europe. I have always thought that there is a case for taking more refugees from the camps. One example is medical and engineering students who have had their studies disrupted at Syrian universities and whose skills will be needed when the crisis ends and the country needs to be rebuilt.
It would be a huge boost to the future of Syria if they were able to complete their studies in Britain on condition they return home to practise once it is safe to do so.
The Prime Minister’s initiative nevertheless has the air of a panic reaction. A more considered response would have been to appeal to other world leaders to try to end the Syrian crisis and to establish a kind of international protocol for dealing with other failed states. It is understandable after the chaos which followed the Iraq inva- sion of 2003 that the outside world be shy of intervening in Syria. But by not doing so the civil war has sunk into bloody stalemate. The patchwork of anti- Assad forces has become dominated by a regime even more revolting than Assad himself: Islamic State.
IF THE world can unite on anything surely it is on the need to crush IS. Even Iran is an ally of the West in that. Could the world not agree on stronger peace- keeping missions in countries such as South Sudan and Somalia?
As for refugee camps, it makes no sense to starve them of resources. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says it is £ 2billion short of what it needs to maintain camps in countries surrounding Syria. There are 4.27 million people currently living in these camps, many times more than the numbers who have reached Europe.
There have been attempts to portray Britain as meanminded compared with Germany and Sweden’s more welcoming attitude. Yet we are making a bigger contribution to running these camps. How much better that other countries were persuaded to match our generosity in this respect, leading to improved conditions for refugees close to their home countries and reducing their incentive to undertake the kind of lethal journeys on which Aylan Kurdi met his death.
‘ Many more will make
perilous journeys’