Britain is to respond to the refugee crisis facing Europe by taking 20,000 refugees from the camps on the borders of Syria over the next five years, David Cameron has announced.
Cameron told the House of Commons the UK would “live up to its moral responsibility” towards people forced from their homes by the forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and the Islamic State terror group.
The prime minister said the refugees would not immediately be granted full asylum status, giving them a right to settle, but instead a humanitarian status that will allow them to apply for asylum at the end of five years.
Critics said the number, when spread over five years, was not as impressive as it first sounded. Paddy Ashdown, the former Liberal Demcrat leader, called it “derisory” in an article for the Guardian. In the Lords, Ashdown also condemned the policy of deporting refugee children when they are 18, if they are not granted asylum.
But a government spokesperson said: “This is not true. As the PM outlined in the House, all Syrian refugees being resettled through the scheme will be granted a five-year protection visa. At the end of this period, they can either return home or apply for indefinite leave to remain.”
Cameron said he will be working with the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) to identify those that will be allowed to come to the UK. Full funding of the expanded refugee programme will be given to councils and devolved administration in the first full year, with the cash coming from the government overseas aid programme.
He said the pace at which the 20,000 refugees come to the UK will depend on the speed with which the UNHCR can identify refugees and how quickly local councils are able to process the applicants.
Pressure to admit more Syrians has grown since the publication of photographs of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who drowned with his mother and brother trying to cross from Turkey to Greece by boat.
Cameron, stung by the outpouring of sympathy for refugees in the wake of photographs, told MPs: “The whole country has been deeply moved by the heart-breaking images we have seen over the past few days.”
He added: “It is absolutely right that Britain should fulfil its moral responsibility to help those refugees just as we have done so proudly throughout our history. But in doing so we must use our head and our heart by pursuing a comprehensive approach that tackles the causes of the problem as well as the consequences.”
Cameron said that in most cases, it would be best to keep children in the region where they could remain close to surviving family members. “But in cases where the advice of the UNHCR is that their needs should be met by resettlement here in the UK, we will ensure that vulnerable children, including orphans, will be a priority.”
Further details will be spelt out by the home secretary, Theresa May, next week.
The European commission is understood to be preparing to ask EU member states to take part in a mandatory scheme to resettle 160,000 migrants who have already arrived on the continent. The French president, François Hollande, has said France is ready to take in 24,000 people.
But Cameron insisted Britain would not be involved in any EU-wide refugee quota system or help with refugees already in Europe. He has said taking refugees already in Europe would encourage other Syrians to come to the EU and undermine UK borders.
Some Labour MPs and the Green MP, Caroline Lucas, dismissed the offer as unacceptable, saying it represented only 12 refugees a day over the course of this parliament, adding that 20,000 sounded less impressive given the long timescale. Lucas described the proposed number as pitifully small.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said: “In the 1930s Britain took 10,000 children in just nine months – if counties and cities each took 10 refugee families we could help 10,000 people in the next few months.
“I am urging the prime minister to look again at this – and to talk to local authorities about how many more people they can swiftly help. I am holding a summit this week with councils, faith groups and charities to see how much more Britain can swiftly do.”
The Conservative-controlled Local Government Association called on the government to provide full funding to support refugees until they are granted asylum or return to their own countries. “Local communities that open their doors at a moment of crisis should not be left to pick up the pieces when funding runs out and the world’s attention has moved on.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the government response “is still a very slim in comparison to the figures given by the UNHCR and the European Commission, and to the other needs we see; and that it is likely that it is going to have to rise over the next five years, unless of course the driver is dealt with significantly”.
Maurice Wren, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “The programme needs to be frontloaded as the crisis is now and the expansion must happen as a matter of urgency as people are living in desperate situations in the region and cannot wait until 2020 to reach safety.
“Today’s announcement will not, however, help those who are standing on the shores of Libya, contemplating boarding a rickety boat, in a desperate attempt to reach family members already living in safety in the UK.”
Steve Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee expert, said: “It shouldn’t have taken a photograph to get politicians to start to do the right thing, but this news offers a vital lifeline to thousands of Syrians. If acted upon urgently, it will be a truly positive step forward.
“However, it does not address the huge challenge facing Europe right now – countries like Greece and Hungary cannot cope alone. Nor does it offer a solution to the many Eritreans, Afghans and others, forced to flee bullets, bombs, torture and overcrowded refugee camps elsewhere.
“We all need to acknowledge there is no single measure that can immediately solve the current crisis, and no one country can achieve its resolution all by itself.”
