More refugees for Britain
Cameron says asylum seekers in camps near Syria, not those now in Europe, are eligible.
LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron announced Friday that Britain will help resettle thousands more Syrian refugees amid mounting pressure to deal with the growing humanitarian crisis.
His announcement came the same day hundreds of frustrated and exhausted migrants stranded in Hungary made a break for the border on foot.
One group left Budapest’s Keleti railway station saying theywere planning to walk to Vienna, a distance of about 130 miles, after trains in that direction were indefinitely suspended Thursday.
They snaked through the Hungarian capital under the blazing sun, forming a long line that reportedly included people in wheelchairs, on crutches and barefoot.
On Friday night, after the column of people had traveled as far as 30miles by one estimate, the government announced that it would organize buses to take marchers and migrants still at the railway station to the border with Austria. A spokesman for the prime minister’s office said the move was to prevent paralysis on Hungary’s roads but therewas no guarantee that Austria would let in the migrants.
Another group of migrants broke out of train cars in Bicske station, northwest of Budapest, where they had been holed up since Thursday when their journey came to a halt near one of the country’s large camps for asylum seekers.
Several hundred people made a break for it, overwhelming police and running down the tracks in the direction of Austria, more than 80 miles to thewest.
Speaking in Lisbon, Cameron that said that there is a “moral responsibility” to help the thousands of people fleeing to Europe and that Britain will act with “our head and our heart” in providing refuge for those in need.
But he said the new arrivals in Britain will not come from among those now on European soil but from a program already in operation that resettles refugees in camps bordering Syria.
“Given the scale of the crisis and the suffering of people, today I can announce that we will do more in providing resettlement to thousands more Syrian refugees,” Cameron said.
Emphasizing that Britain had not been a silent partner in this growing humanitarian disaster, Cameron said Britain already has accepted 5,000 Syrians and provided more than $ 1.3 billion to help those affected in Syria and the surrounding region.
The prime minister’s promise to take in more refugees marked a shift in policy. He previously argued that taking in more people was not the solution.
That stance received increased and intense criticism after heart breaking images emerged of a drowned Syrian toddler named Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed up this week on a beach in Turkey.
His mother and 5- yearold brother also died when the inflatable boat theywere traveling in from Turkey to Greece capsized. The child’s father survived and has spoken of their harrowing ordeal.
The front pages of Britain’s newspapers, typically a strong barometer of the national mood, also have noticeably changed their tone. The Rupert Murdochowned Sun newspaper on Friday used the headline “For Aylan” to announce that it had started a campaign to help thousands of children caughtup in the migrant crisis.
Aylan’s father, Abdullah Kurdi, buried his wife and two sons Friday in their hometown of Kobani in northern Syria. A small crowd gathered as their bodies were lowered into the ground wrapped in white cloth.
Earlier, as the bodies were transferred across the Turkish border, the grieving father called on governments — particularly those along the Persian Gulf — to do more.
“I want Arab countries— not European ones— to see my children,” said Kurdi, the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman reported. “And because of them to help people.”
More than 2,500 migrants and refugees have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea this year, according to United Nations estimates.
Kurdi also said he would not again try to leave his homeland, which is in the fifth year of a civilwar.
“He only wanted to go to Europe for the sake of his children,” an uncle of the father told the Associated Press. “Now that they’re dead, he wants to stay here in Kobani next to them.”
Austria, Germany and other wealthier European nations have been seen as the most desirable destination for the thousands fleeing their war- torn homelands in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has taken a tough stance against migrants and refugees, including building a razor- wire barrier along the border with Serbia and sending 3,500 troops to defend it. On Friday, his parliament passed tough measures to crack downon migrants and human traffickers.
Attempts to come up with a European Union- wide solution to the problem appear to be foundering.
In Prague, a meeting of Czech, Hungarian, Slovakian and Polish prime ministers rejected calls that each EU nation accept a quota of people seeking refuge.
The International Organization for Migration in Greece estimates that more than 5,000 migrants and refugees a day have crossed the Aegean Sea into Greece in the last week. It says the largest numbers are Syrians, followed by Afghans, andthe groups are predominantly men, families with children and minors accompanied by close relatives.
IOM Greece says many of the families, especially the Afghans, include pregnant womenand newborns.