I have had a few e-mails this week in relation to the situation in the Mediterranean with refugees and migrants and copy below my views on this issue.
"The situation in the Mediterranean is tragic and symptomatic of a wider issue that needs to be tackled at source and in transit countries. The Government is rightly clear that the link between people making the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean and achieving settlement in Europe must be broken, and that we must target and disrupt the organised criminal gangs who profit from this.
Keith Vaz, who has a long record of speaking up for migrant and refugee rights, has spoken powerfully on this point in Parliament, in particular in response to previous suggestions of quotas for those who have already arrived on Italian and Greek shores. The offer by Germany, whilst well intentioned, is resulting in more people setting out on a dangerous journey with the inevitable result of more deaths as we are seeing daily.
Offering a goal as Germany has done, but no legal or safe route to get to it (Such as processing applications for asylum at a UNHCR Refugee Camp in Turkey, Libya or Lebanon then issuing travel papers), means the type of scenes we have seen in the Balkans and in the Mediterranean will get even worse. I personally am not prepared as your MP to vote for policies that sound good or kind, but actually result in a much worse situation on the ground with the traffickers genuinely able to say “Get in this dangerous boat and you will go to Britain”. Those who are desperate will take the risk, whatever advice is given, if there is a perceived reward at the end. We should out of humanity provide a rescue service, as HMS Bulwark assisted with, but it needs to be clear that seeking settlement in the UK is done by other, safer, means.
Last year I wrote a column expressing my own views on the situation. I stated that our goal as the UK should be to support those who flee into neighbouring countries, such as Turkey (Where UN figures suggest 1.9m Syrians have fled) and Lebanon by sharing some of the costs they are facing, not just taking a particular number from the camps into the UK as a gesture, but then ignoring the vast majority leaving those nations to pick up the bill on their own. For background the UK has already accepted 5000 refugees from Syria.
I also expressed a view that whilst for many return home will be their ultimate goal when the fighting in Iraq and Syria ceases, for some, such as those Christians who fled genocide in Syria\Northern Iraq, this will not be possible and permanent sanctuary in democratic nations will be needed. Yet this should be done via managed solutions provided in the region, ideally working with the UNHCR, not only offered to those who can get themselves trafficked into Europe to make an application as some other nations are suggesting we offer. This gives confidence that those needing sanctuary would be helped, whilst directly conflicting with the traffickers trade that is based on being settled on arrival, but there being no legal or safe means of doing that for those in a camp in Turkey or Lebanon.
The UK Government has indicated it will be accepting more refugees directly from the camps run by the UNHCR and providing them sanctuary in the UK. As part of this scheme those helped will be able to travel via air to the UK and not have to seek the services of people traffickers to reach Europe first as has been the case with other schemes proposed by the EU.
The UK has already committed over £900 million in Aid to help people displaced by the Syrian crisis, mostly into neighbouring countries, making us the second largest bilateral donor in the world (Behind only the USA) in responding to that humanitarian crisis. This is far more than any other country in Europe has offered (In comparison France has offered only £70m & Italy only £64m), keeping tens of thousands alive over the last four years, and will benefit far more people than taking a token number (Given the scale of people displaced by the Syrian War) into the UK as suggested by some. If this was done by redistributing those who have crossed the sea then they are likely to be quickly replaced by more (who actually manage to survive the journey) that were encouraged to make it by that action. One party before the election proposed we took a small number of refugees from Syria, but then argued we should cut our foreign aid budget that supported the vast majority of them.
In addition to this support for Syria new aid initiatives totalling £217 million in Africa will go to help approximately 2.5 million refugees and vulnerable people in the countries that the majority of migrants are travelling from or through. This is part of over £4 billion the Government has already committed to improving economic development, governance and security in African states as well as improving access to basic services.
The UK is one of the few nations in the world that meets the UN target of spending 0.7% of its national income on International Aid, a sign that we are a generous nation to those in need across the world. Some of the nations now criticising the UK might wish to look at their own records in this area as when the war in Syria does end major reconstruction aid will be needed to build a stable future for the vast majority of those affected by it, not just those able to pay a trafficker to ship them across the sea."
If you do want to make a contribution to help those affected by the war in Syria the best option is to donate to one of the charities that have been working on the ground to help people over the last four years. Your donation will go to those who in the most need of help and they have the ability to buy in bulk, plus transport aid to the region, to make sure your donation helps those most in need.
The UNHCR (United Nations High Commission For Refugees) has been supporting millions of refugees in camps along the border with Syria. You can find their appeal for those affected by the Syrian Civil War by clicking here.