US-Europe World Affairs

Statement by Prime Minister David Cameron on Syria refugees and counter-terrorism

At the House of Common, 7. September 2015

Before making a statement on counter-terrorism, let me update the House about what we are doing to help address the migration crisis in Europe and, in particular, to help the thousands of refugees who are fleeing from Syria.

This issue is clearly the biggest challenge facing countries across Europe today. More than 300,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year. These people came from different countries under different circumstances. Some are economic migrants in search of a better life in Europe. Many are refugees fleeing conflict. And it is vital to distinguish between the two.

In recent weeks we have seen a vast increase in the numbers arriving across the Eastern Mediterranean from Turkey – more than 150,000 people have attempted that route since January. The majority of these are Syrian refugees – fleeing the terror of Assad and ISIL, which has seen more than 11 million people driven from their homes.

The whole country has been deeply moved by the heart-breaking images we have seen over the past few days. And it is absolutely right that Britain should fulfil its moral responsibility to help those refugees just as we have done so proudly throughout our history.

But in doing so we must use our head and our heart by pursuing a comprehensive approach that tackles the causes of the problem as well as the consequences.

• It means stabilising countries where the migrants are coming from
• It means seeking a solution to the crisis in Syria
• It means pushing for the formation of a new unity government in Libya
• It means busting the criminal gangs
• It means saving lives using our aid budget
• It means funding the refugee camps

Britain is doing and will continue to do all of these things.

• We are using our aid budget to alleviate poverty and suffering in the countries where these people are coming.
• We are the only major country in the world that has kept our promise to spend 0.7% of our GDP on aid.
• We are already the second largest bilateral donor of aid to the Syrian conflict, including providing over 18 million food rations, giving 1.6 million access to clean water and providing education to a quarter of a million children.

And last week  we announced the largest an additional £100 million in aid taking our toal contribution to over £1 billion

The is the UK’s largest ever response to a humanitarian crisis. Sixty Million pounds of this additional funding will go to help Syrians still in Syria.

The rest will go to neighbouring countries – to Turkey, to Jordan, to Lebanon where Syrian refugees now account for one-quarter of the population. And over half of this new funding will support children, with a particular priority on those who have been orphaned or separated from their families.

No other European country has come close to this level of support. Without Britain’s aid to these camps, the numbers attempting the dangerous journey to Europe would be very much higher. And as my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor said yesterday, we will now go much further in the spending review, significantly reshaping the way we use our aid budget to serve our national interest. We will invest even more in tackling the causes of the crisis in the Middle East and North Africa. And we will hold much larger sums in reserve to respond to acute humanitarian crises as they happen.

Britain is doing and will continue to do all of these things.

We are using our aid budget to alleviate poverty and suffering in the countries where these people are coming.
We are the only major country in the World that has kept our promise to spend 0.7% of our GDP on aid.
We are already the Second Largest bilateral donor of aid to the Syrian conflict, including providing over 18 million food rations, giving 1.6 million access to clean water and providing education to a quarter of a million children.

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