British Finance Minister George Osborne said today that Great Britain sees the final solution to the refugee crisis in deterring refugees from embarking on the dangerous journey to Europe, instead of in the proposed quota system for the distribution of refugees among the countries of the European Union.
"By helping people in need, we shouldn't be encouraging more families to make the desperately dangerous journey across the Mediterranean, we think we should be going directly to those refugee camps and helping, and bringing people from those camps to the UK," Osbor told the BBC. .
At the same time, the British finance minister said today that Great Britain will use funds from the aid budget, which has 18 billion dollars or 0,7 percent of gross domestic product, to cover the costs of housing refugees arriving from Syria to help local authorities.
"The overseas aid funds that we have can provide support for the first year of those refugees, it can help local authorities with issues like housing costs," Osborne said.
The finance minister could not say how many refugees the UK would take in, saying Prime Minister David Cameron could make the announcement on Monday.
Cameron, Reuters reminds, after the outpouring of emotions regarding the picture of the drowned boy Aylan Kurdi from the Turkish beach, said on Friday that Great Britain will accept "thousands more" of Syrian refugees.
The British prime minister did not specify their number, and a representative of the UN refugee agency said that Great Britain could receive 4.000 Syrian refugees.
"The Sunday Times" writes that Downing Street is considering the possibility of accepting 15.000 Syrian refugees.
The British agency reminds that Great Britain has accepted only 216 Syrian refugees since the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011, according to the plan supported by the UN.
Asylum in that country was granted to approximately 5.000 Syrians who came to Great Britain on their own.
Reuters states that this is far from the number received by some other countries, such as Germany, which expects an influx of 800.000 refugees this year.
The agency adds that the center-right government wants to avoid fueling the debate on migrants ahead of the referendum on remaining in the EU, which should be held by the end of 2017.
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