DAVID Cameron’s visit to a Syrian refugee camp was last night attacked as a ploy to divert attention from the lack of action he is taking to help the tens of thousands of refugees who have crossed the Mediterranean to seek sanctuary in Europe.
Scottish Green Party co-convener Patrick Harvie MSP spoke out as the Prime Minister urged other EU countries to “step up to the plate” and give funding to refugee camps around Syria – while declining to join a EU-wide scheme to relocate 160,000 refugees who have arrived in southern Europe.
“David Cameron has some nerve going to Lebanon, which is already hosting well over a million refugees, and implying that they need to do more,” he said. “Of course there must be better funding to ensure security and decent living standards in the camps close to Syria, but this humanitarian tragedy demands a welcoming response inside the EU as well.”
He added: “I know from the rally in Glasgow at the weekend that Scotland is ready to play a full part in that. By failing to sign up to the relocation programme, the Prime Minister demonstrates his callous attitude towards fellow human beings in crisis.”
Cameron said yesterday there was a “direct connection” between shortfalls in aid for camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey and the influx of refugees into Europe.
Last week the Prime Minister said that over the next five years the UK would accept 20,000 refugees living in camps along the Syria border, but that he would not join the EU quota scheme to relocate those who had already arrived in Europe.
Yesterday, speaking during a visit to the immense Za’atri camp, which houses 90,000 Syrians in Jordan, he warned that a failure to boost spending would mean “many, many, many” more people taking the decision to risk a perilous Mediterranean crossing.
“It is a fact that the World Food Programme and UNHCR are underfunded, and if other countries did as much as Britain has done, we could solve that problem,” said the Prime Minister.
“We have given something in the region of £1 billion – that’s more than 10 times some of the countries in our region.
“I would encourage others to step up to the plate and spend and invest in the way Britain has done. There is a moral imperative for that, but there is also a real connection to the refugee crisis in Europe.”
Yesterday Cameron met some of the families who will come to the UK under the scheme he announced last week, which extends a Vulnerable Persons Relocation programme that has taken in 216 Syrians since being launched early last year.
He said those coming to the UK would include sick children, women who had been raped and men who had suffered torture at the hands of dictator Bashar Assad or Daesh.
He called on Britain to give them a “warm welcome”, saying the offer of sanctuary was “something the whole country can be proud of”.
During his visit to one camp, Cameron was invited into the tent of a mother of ten, who told him how she struggled to feed her family on reduced 13.50 dollar-a-month handouts after the World Food Programme was forced to cut back support.
He also announced he was appointing Watford MP Richard Harrington as minister for Syrian refugees to oversee the operation to welcome the new arrivals to the UK over the next five years.
In a separate development yesterday, the Prime Minister also indicated he could press ahead with a Commons vote on whether to bomb Daesh targets in Syria despite Labour’s new leader Jeremy Corbyn’s opposition to an extension of RAF strikes.
He suggested he would seek to build support among rebel Labour MPs for extending Britain’s involvement in airstrikes against members of the extremist group.
The development followed the announcement last week of an unprecedented RAF drone strike that killed two British-born members of Daesh inSyria.
Ruhul Amin, 26, also known as Abdul Rakib Amin, from Aberdeen, died along with Reyaad Khan, 21, from Cardiff, who had featured in a prominent Daesh recruiting video last year. Both men were killed in a drone strike in the Daesh stronghold of Raqqa on August 21. No civilians died.
Cameron, who has indicated in recent weeks that he believes Britain should extend its involvement in airstrikes against Daesh targets from Iraq to Syria, indicated that he still believes it is possible to win parliamentary approval. Corbyn rejects any British involvement in air strikes against Daesh.
Asked whether a vote was less likely after Corbyn’s election, the Prime Minister said yesterday: “That will depend on parliament. It doesn’t necessarily depend on the views of one person.”
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