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Britain reported to take 15,000 refugees from Syria

Xinhua, September 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

Britain is reported to take 15,000 refugees from Syria and is considering military action against ISIS militants within one month, reported The Sunday Times on Sunday.

The newspaper said by citing senior source from British government that the No. 10 of Downing Street had once discussing a figure as high as 20,000, but Prime Minister David Cameron's "current thinking" will see around 15,000 people in refugee camps on the Syrian border resettled in Britain.

"Until now it has been suggested Britain would take between 4,000 and 10,000 refugees. But one senior official said 10,000 was now the 'minimum not the maximum'," noted The Sunday Times.

And among the reported four-point plan on Britain's efforts in alleviating the humanitarian crisis, Britain is considering launching a military and intelligence offensive against the people traffickers, diverting foreign aid to the crisis as part of the government spending review, as well as persuading Members of Parliament to back airstrikes in Syria in a vote scheduled for early October.

Later this week, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker will announce an EU quota system of settling the refugees. Britain is not joining the system, but a government's source to The Sunday Times noted that:" We will show that we are pulling our weight."

On the same day, British Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne confirmed in a BBC's TV interview that Cameron would be making a statement at the Parliament's House of Commons on the refugee crisis on Monday, or on Sept. 7.

He said the government would look at bringing refugees "directly from Syria," rather than those who had already travelled to the European Union (EU).

Osborne said: "We need to make an assessment of what our public services and infrastructure can support."

"We've increased this foreign aid budget -- can provide the support in the first year for these refugees, can help local councils with things like housing costs," he added.

On Sept. 4, Cameron announced that Britain is to provide resettlement to "thousands" more Syria refugees in response to the deteriorating humanitarian crisis. Endit