Yvette Cooper MP, Shadow Home Secretary, has today written to the Home Secretary Theresa May on Syrian refugees. A copy of the letter is below.
***
Dear Theresa,
It is nearly a year since the Government launched the ‘vulnerable person relocation scheme’ for the most vulnerable Syrian refugees forced to flee the awful conflict in their country.
Their homes have been destroyed, their community and country taken away from them, and now food supplies at risk due to the critical pressure on countries absorbing vast numbers of displaced people.
More than 3.2 million people have fled Syria and another 7.6 million have been displaced. Jordan and Lebanon have taken in millions of people and their condition is desperate. As one aid worker noted of people stranded and displaced in one area, “they are having to manage on one 200ml bottle of water a day… eight people have died there in the last two months, and one of them was a seven-year-old child”.
Clearly we must continue to do more of the vital work being taken forward by the Department for International Development. The foremost responsibility of the international community is to meet the challenge of this humanitarian crisis in the region.
Yet as you accepted in January, we should also do our bit to help the most vulnerable Syrian refugees who the UNHCR consider urgently need safe haven. On this, I consider the Government is badly failing to uphold its moral duty.
According to the latest statistics and information from charities, around 100 people have been resettled under the scheme.
Relative to the horrifying nature of the conflict, the humanitarian crisis unfolding, and the daily catastrophe besetting mothers, young children and victims of torture and war rape, that is shameful.
As part of the UNHCR programme, Finland have provided 500 places, Ireland 310 places, Norway 1,000 places, Switzerland 500 places, and Sweden 1,200 places. Other countries, including Germany and Australia, have chosen to offer a larger number of places. The flexibility of the UNHCR programme makes that possible.
I am therefore asking you to consider:
1) Sending a Minister to the Geneva Conference on 9th December and signing up for the UNHCR scheme which we believed the Government should have gone with in the first place – working with the experts as part of a coalition of countries helping those who are most vulnerable.
2) Failing that, for the Home Office to send a Minister to the Geneva Conference and significantly change the current government programme so more places are made available.
Currently the UK Government will be represented by Karen Pierce, UK Ambassador to the UN in Geneva.
Last January you launched the vulnerable person relocation scheme after a campaign led by the UNHCR, charities, Labour and MPs from across the House forced a change of heart from the Government.
I urge you to reconsider your policy once again and do more to help the most vulnerable refugees fleeing this awful humanitarian crisis.
Yours sincerely,
Rt. Hon. Yvette Cooper MP