Cameron: We’ll do our duty and take in refugees
DAVID Cameron last night bowed to demands to offer thousands of Syrians a home in Britain.
A day after insisting that the UK would not take in ‘more and more refugees’, the Prime Minister made a U-turn to say the country would fulfil its ‘moral responsibilities’ to those fleeing war.
His change of heart follows pressure from backbenchers and the publication of harrowing pictures of three-year- old Aylan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish beach.
Last night, Downing Street said Britain had taken in 5,000 Syrian refugees over the past four years but would now accept thousands more. Officials were understood to be looking urgently at various options, including details of numbers, funding and where in the country the refugees will be sent.
It is expected that those selected to come to Britain will be drawn from the UN camps on the Syrian border. The Prime Minister believes that taking refugees already in Europe would encourage others to make the perilous journey.
Further options include more aid for refugee camps and military action to tackle people-smuggling in the Mediterranean.
Tory MPs had lined up to urge Mr Cameron to offer sanctuary to more refugees – with one saying it was a test of our country’s ‘humanity’. But other backbenchers urged caution, saying that an emotional response to one picture was no way to make policy.
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said his heart was broken by the images of refugees fleeing persecution.
‘This is a hugely complex and wicked crisis that underlines our human frailty and the fragility of our political systems,’ he added. ‘We must respond with compassion.’
The Government has opted out of UN and EU schemes that could mean accepting tens of thousands of asylum seekers, argu- ing that the focus should be on bringing peace to the areas they are fleeing.
But Mr Cameron said: ‘Anyone who saw those pictures overnight could not help but be moved and, as a father, I felt deeply moved by the sight of that young boy on a beach in Turkey. Britain is a moral nation and we will fulfil our moral responsibilities.
‘That’s why Britain is the second biggest bilateral donor in the world to ... Syrian refugee camps. And that is why, yes, we are taking thousands of Syrian refugees and we will continue to do that. As I said yesterday, we keep that under review.’
He added: ‘There’s not a solution to this problem that is simply about taking people. We need a comprehensive solution, a new government in Libya, we need to deal with the problems in Syria.’
The statement by the Prime Minister came following mounting criticism from Tory backbenchers.
Nadhim Zahawi MP, an Iraqi migrant who came to the UK with his family aged nine after fleeing Saddam Hussein’s regime, tweeted in response to the photo of Aylan: ‘We are nothing without compassion. Pic should make us all ashamed. We have failed in Syria. I am sorry little angel, RIP.’
His colleague Nicola Blackwood MP wrote: ‘Britain has a proud history of giving sanctuary ... We cannot be the generation that fails this test of humanity.’
But Tory MP Andrew Percy said his constituents were not clamouring to accept more refugees, tweeting: ‘It is incredible comparing the media coverage of the migrant crisis with the emails I am receiving from constituents.’
‘As a father, I felt deeply moved’
Meanwhile, tension was also mounting across Europe as Brussels was accused of turning the Mediterranean into a ‘cemetery’ for refugees. Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan accused EU states of being responsible for the death of every single victim of the crisis, saying: ‘European countries, which turned the Mediterranean Sea – the cradle of ancient civilisations – into a migrant cemetery are party to the crime that takes place when each refugee loses their life.’
Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, attacked Britain specifically for doing ‘much less’ than other countries to ease the crisis.
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