THE UK Government has been accused by the SNP of pandering to the right-wing Press over the Syrian refugee crisis and of missing an opportunity “to do the right thing” by not aiming to take in more than 1000 asylum-seekers by Christmas.
During Foreign Office Questions in the Commons, Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh, the SNP MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, asked why the UK Government continued to “conflate” the important but separates issues of refugees and migrants.
“The refugee crisis, not the migrant crisis,” she insisted, “is an exceptional circumstance and those families and individuals are fleeing the region are doing so, first and foremost, for their own safety.”
The backbencher declared: “These people want to go home,” and asked Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary: “Does he not agree that a humanitarian plan for long-term peace in Syria would do far much more to address this crisis than short-term measures, which appear to be designed to curry favour with the right-wing Press?”
Mr Hammond told MPs: “I don’t know where the honourable lady has got that from,” and stressed everyone agreed that “addressing the upstream problem, getting a political settlement in Syria, defeating Isil, so it can’t carry out its barbarous activities, is the right way to go.”
He stressed: “When we come to build the new Syria, post-Assad, we will need those engineers, those doctors, those teachers, who are being encouraged to resettle in Europe. We have a responsibility to make sure that the new Syria has access to those qualified and educated people.”
But the SNP’s Kirsten Oswald, who represents East Renfrewshire, pointed out how David Cameron’s new ambition for Britain to take in 1000 refugees by Christmas equated to just two refugees per constituency.
This, she insisted, was “simply not good enough and represents a real missed opportunity to do the right thing”.
In response, David Lidington, the Europe Minister, disagreed and accused Ms Oswald of “under-estimating the importance when we shall be offering a home to people, who are the most vulnerable and the most traumatised by the conflict to ensure they are given a proper reception and the full package of support from the NHS, in many cases from social services from local authority level as well; they have got to be properly provided for”.
Later, Alex Salmond, the SNP’s Foreign Affairs Spokesman, accused the Foreign Secretary as well as the Prime Minister and Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, of having their “itchy fingers” on the trigger of military intervention in Syria.
But, he asked, with 12 other countries already bombing in Syria, what analysis had been carried out on the “additionality” further RAF sorties could make to the military situation.
Mr Hammond argued that extending bombing to Syria was a matter of “military efficiency”.
He explained: “We are already flying reconnaissance missions over Syria but our reapers(drones) now have to fly over Syria unarmed, looking for situations, which they then relay back to call in other allies to carry out strikes; that is not the most efficient way to carry out operations.”
Mr Salmond urged the Secretary of State to listen to his own backbenchers. “As a non-combatant nation there are certain advantages in being able to make diplomatic initiatives. Given the PM is meeting the President of China, another non-combatant nation and a permanent member of the UNSC, why not discuss a joint diplomatic initiative instead of just thinking additional bombing is an answer.”
Mr Hammond said he had indeed discussed it with his Chinese counterparts several times but “judged” Beijing was not yet willing to undertake a diplomatic initiative that would separate it from Moscow.
“Let me be clear,” added the Foreign Secretary, “we are part of Coalition activities in Syria. We are not carrying out kinetic actions but we are flying reconnaissance and surveillance missions and feeding back the output of those missions to the Coalition.”
The Prime Minister is said to be increasingly confident that at least 50 Labour MPs would back a Commons vote on extending RAF strikes from Iraq to Syria. Expectations are rising that such a vote could happen before Christmas but Mr Cameron, scarred by losing a previous Commons vote on military action in Syria, is keen to make sure he has the numbers before putting the issue to Parliament.
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