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| UK to accept 20,000 refugees from Syria by 2020 | UK to accept 20,000 refugees from Syria by 2020 |
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| The UK will accept up to 20,000 refugees from Syria over the next five years, David Cameron has told MPs. | The UK will accept up to 20,000 refugees from Syria over the next five years, David Cameron has told MPs. |
| The prime minister said the UK had a "moral responsibility" to resettle refugees living in camps bordering Syria while also doing all it can to end the conflict in the country. | The prime minister said the UK had a "moral responsibility" to resettle refugees living in camps bordering Syria while also doing all it can to end the conflict in the country. |
| Vulnerable children and orphans would be prioritised in what would be a "national effort", Mr Cameron said. | |
| The international aid budget will be used to help councils house people. | |
| France earlier announced that it would take in 24,000 refugees over the next two years. | |
| In a statement to Parliament, Mr Cameron also revealed that a British citizen believed to planning terrorist attacks on the UK had been killed in an RAF drone strike in Syria last month. | |
| Mr Cameron told MPs that the suffering of the Syrian people and others trying to make it to Europe in recent weeks was "heartbreaking" and that the UK was stepping up its effort to help those displaced by the conflict. | |
| He told MPs that the existing Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme, in place since early 2014, would be expanded, with an additional 20,000 people currently living in camps in Syria, Turkey and Jordan being resettled in the UK by 2020. | |
| 'Safe route' | |
| People brought to Britain under VPR have been granted Humanitarian Protection, a status normally used for people who "don't qualify for asylum" but would be at "real risk of suffering serious harm" in their home country. | |
| They can stay for five years, have the right to work and access public funds. After five years they can apply to settle in the UK. | |
| Mr Cameron told MPs that the criteria applied to the scheme would be widened and that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees would be responsible for identifying and assessing those most in need. | |
| "We are proposing that Britain should resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over the rest of this Parliament," he said. | |
| "In doing so we will continue to show the world that this country is a country of extra compassion, always standing up for our values and helping those in need." | |
| "Britain will play its part alongside our other European partners but because we're not part of the EU's borderless Schengen agreement or its relocation initiative Britain is able to decide its own approach. | |
| "We will continue with our approach of taking refugees from the camps and elsewhere in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. This provides refugees with a more direct and safe route to the UK rather than risking the hazardous journey to European which has tragically cost so many lives." | |
| Labour leader Harriet Harman said the government was doing the "right thing" but there was an urgent need for action now and questioned whether there was scope to accept more than 4,000 refugees this year. | |
| She also called on the government to reconsider its refusal to accept any refugees currently in southern Europe. |