David Cameron's refugee promise needs to be more than a gesture
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Version 0 of 1. David Cameron’s promise to resettle thousands more Syrian refugees in Britain from camps in Lebanon is welcome but leaves intact his basic policy of wanting to “break the link between people getting into the boats and getting settlement in Europe.” The prime minister has made clear that those who are to be brought to Britain are only to be the most deserving amongst the 4 million displaced Syrians living in UN-registered refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. To qualify for the main scheme under which only 216 people have arrived since March last year – known as the vulnerable persons relocation scheme – a refugee must not only have fled from their homes but must also have been a victim of torture or sexual violence, or be too elderly or disabled to survive in the camps. The UN puts forward “candidates” for the scheme but only British officials are empowered to make the final selection. Cameron is unable to put a figure on how many will come under this scheme because there has be local councils in Britain willing to take responsibility for them. So few have volunteered so far, with only Bradford and one other unnamed authority being prepared to host them. The problem is that until now the Home Office was only prepared to guarantee funding for one year, while those being given sanctuary are expected to stay for a minimum of five years. Sheffield, Manchester and Hull said last year they could not take part on that basis. Urgent discussions must now be held to resolve the problem. A second UN “gateway” scheme that also opens up a legal route to Britain from refugee camps is also to be expanded. Until now, this scheme – under which 750 people are given sanctuary in the UK every year – has not involved Syrian refugees. This time there might be EU money to help solve that problem with the voluntary persons relocation scheme, but Britain’s refusal to take part in the European Union’s emergency programme to relocate 40,000 refugees, mainly from Italy and Greece, over the next two years may make that more complex to negotiate. Even Ireland, which has a population one-fourteenth the size of the UK and has the same opt-out right as Britain not to take part in the EU relocation and resettlement schemes, announced on Friday that it would take 1,800 refugees . A grant of €6,000 comes with every refugee. It is notable that Cameron’s offer of “thousands” of resettlement places falls short of Yvette Cooper’s call for 10,000 in a month. It also comes on the day when the United Nations high commissioner for refugees has said that Europe’s relocation programme needs to include 200,000 places, not 40,000, and the situation requires “a massive common effort”, not the “current fragmented approach”. Cameron’s refusal to participate in the EU relocation scheme is based on the same logic that led to the initial refusal to take part in planned European search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean. As one Foreign Office minister infamously put it: “It creates an unintended “pull factor”, encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths.” This policy of “breaking the link” between getting into Europe via the refugee boats and getting to stay in Europe is what led Cameron to talk about a “swarm of people” trying to cross the Mediterranean and “break into Britain” in search of a better life. It is also why British ministers will go to the emergency refugee meeting in Europe in 10 days’ time armed not with a promise to take part in the relocation programme. Instead they will press for the rapid processing of asylum claims of those who make it into Europe and the rapid return of those rejected to a new EU list of “safe countries” and for stronger naval action to start seizing the smugglers’ boats. |