David Miliband calls on EU to allow half a million refugees to resettle in Europe
DAVID Miliband urged the European Union to stop “playing catch up” with the refugee crisis and step up its efforts to tackle it by bringing in half a million refugees over the next five years, a proposal likely to anger many EU state members.
International Rescue Committee (IRC) chairman Mr Miliband's proposal would see the number of people welcomed across the bloc raised by almost ten per cent every year.
The move could see Britain take in 15,000 refugees a year, almost twice the number of people it resettled in 2017 (6,859).
Former Labour MP, Mr Miliband said: “It’s doubling from a very low number to another very low number.
“In Britain the number of refugees coming in [each year through the resettlement programme for vulnerable Syrian refugees] is the equivalent of six per parliamentary constituency.
“No one’s going to tell me that my former constituency of South Shields is going to be overwhelmed by six refugees.
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No one’s going to tell me that my former constituency of South Shields is going to be overwhelmed by six refugees
EU state members such as Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, will likely protest against this increase, as last year they refused to participate in a programme that relocated refugees arrived on the Greek and Italian shores.
Their opposition led to the EU launching a legal case against them.
Under the target proposed by Mr Miliband, the EU would take in 108,000 refugees every year for five years from communities in countries such as Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.
All countries would be required to set a target proportionate to their GDP and population for refugee resettlement.
Europe, said Mr Miliband, should “become a proactive player” in dealing with the migrant crisis after it had played “catch up” with it over the past few years.
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He said: “Europe needs to recognise that this refugee crisis around the world is not going away and Europe needs to have a proactive policy which includes the option of refugee resettlement for a portion of the most vulnerable who are identified as qualifying for refugee resettlement”.
The IRC chairman said that the refugee crisis worsened following President Donald Trump announced last year it would slash the US resettlement target.
The US, who had traditionally taken the highest number of refugees through resettlement programmes of any other country in the world, will cut its target by more than half, from 110,000 places in 2017 to a maximum of 45,000 places in 2018.
The number of refugees successfully resettled worldwide dropped last year, when about a third of the migrants (65,000) were resettled worldwide compared to 2016 (189,300).
The EU provided resettlement places for 23,000 refugees, around 1.9 per cent of those eligible.
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The new target put forward by the IRC would see 9 per cent of eligible refugees be resettled.
The EU parliament has recently called for a similar target, proposing to the bloc to bring in 230,000 refugees over two years.
The target is currently under negotiation between the European parliament and the council.
Around 1.2 million out of the 22.5 million refugees around the world are considered in need of resettlement because they are sole parents caring for children, are victims of torture, have severe disabilities or are vulnerable for other reasons, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated.
Each year between 5-6 per cent of eligible people are resettled.