Great Britain is willing to take in “15,000 Syrian refugees”

Great Britain is willing to take in “15,000 Syrian refugees”

The British government is willing to take in 15,000 Syrian refugees. It also hopes MPs will rule in favour of airstrikes against jihadist group the Islamic State, the Sundays Times reports.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure to deal with the refugee crisis, from home and abroad. On Thursday, he said he was “profoundly moved” by images showing the body of a three year old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi. Little Aylan drowned off the coast of Turkey, and his body was found washed up on a Turkish beach.

David Cameron wants to enlarge the British program for vulnerable people, take in 15,000 refugees, and launch military operations against people smugglers, the Sunday Times says.

The Prime Minister also hopes to convince opposition Labour MPs to support airstrikes on Syria. There will be a vote at the beginning of next month, according to the Sunday Times.

Recently, the paper said taking in refugees living in camps on the Syrian border was also being considered.

Great Britain has taken in 216 Syrian refugees in a year, and granted around 5,000 Syrians asylum since 2011, when the civil war that has devastated the country began. That’s a lot less than countries like Germany, Sweden and France.

Great Britain chose not to join a European Union quota system to take in refugees, despite pressing demands for EU member states to accommodate refugees in a more balanced way.

More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country since the start of the conflict. A quarter of a million have been killed. 

(Source: Belga)


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