Syrian Refugee Update: UK's Refugee Plan Slammed By Labor Party
UK is far from stepping it up in the face of the Syrian refugee crisis and is taken the stance of a shirker.
While countries like Germany and Austria are setting great examples by avowing to take in large numbers of refugees -- Germany has actually agreed to shelter 500,000 a year -- the UK has agreed to rehabilitate a measly 4,000 a year up until 2020.
Up until recently David Cameron's government was being slammed by the rest of the world for its parsimony. But now UK's opposition party has also taken a stand, and is challenging Cameron's decision to host such a small number of refugees. The BBC reported that at an emergency debate on the country's response to the crisis at the House of Commons inspired the debate. The Labour's member and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, spoke out against the government's unsatisfactory action.
"The crisis is now and helping 4,000 refugees this year isn't enough," she said.
This seemed in rebuttal to Home Secretary Theresa May suggesting that the administration was doing "everything it can."
Cooper went on to add that she didn't feel like a limit should be applied to the number of refugees they can take in at all.
"If they can help a full 10,000 in the first year, then why not say so? And if they can, then why set a cap for the whole parliament when we have no idea what the circumstances will be in a few years time. In fact, why set a cap for the parliament at all?
"And I'm afraid that this 20,000 over a parliament figure does have the feel of coming up with a plan to maximise the headline number but to to minimise the impact year on year. And it's the wrong approach. We need to know how many the government will help this year."
The UK is not in agreement with Germany's urging that the EU set quota system for most nations so they can share the burden. The government also argued that it had helped out by sending £1 billion in aid. Cooper believes that that is not excuse enough to turn their backs on the crisis.
"I don't agree we should turn our backs. I don't agree we should say that the crisis in Europe is nothing to do with us and the only people that we will help will be from the Syrian camps themselves," she said.
