Evening Standard
London was today accused of falling far short in its efforts to help Syrian refugees as it emerged that only 43 have been resettled in the capital under an official scheme.
Government figures show that 1,337 refugees have been given a new home in Britain under a “Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement” scheme since it was set up in early 2014.
But statistics obtained by the charity Citizens UK show that only 43 — just over three per cent — have been resettled in London. Only four of the capital’s boroughs have taken part in the scheme so far.
The charity today warned that the capital’s performance was disappointing and said that the low number failed to reflect the public’s desire to help.
George Gabriel, of Citizens UK, said: “It’s clear that there are serious challenges to resettling refugees in London, but the idea that one of the world’s greatest cities is going to play next to no role in responding to the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War is clearly unacceptable.”
Today’s figures, obtained by the charity via the Freedom of Information Act, show that Camden has taken 24 refugees under the resettlement scheme while Islington has given homes to 10. Barnet, with six refugees, and Kingston, which has received three, are the others which have participated so far.
Lambeth and Ealing have both agreed to take part, but have yet to resettle any refugees. Mr Gabriel said his charity believed each borough should take at least 10 refugee families a year and that City Hall should appoint a new deputy mayor for integration and citizenship to ensure the capital played its part.
Peter Hill, Bishop of Barking, backed the call, adding: “Londoners want to respond to this historic crisis.”
Ministers originally predicted that several hundred Syrians would be resettled under the scheme over three years. But David Cameron announced a major expansion last September, pledging to raise the number of refugees helped to 20,000.
Boroughs which have confirmed via the Freedom of Information Act that they have not taken any refugees so far include Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Haringey.
Other boroughs failed to reply but the charity says that information from the 15 “refugee welcome” groups set up in the capital to assist Syrians have confirmed that no other local authority, apart from Camden, Islington, Barnet and Kingston, has accepted anyone under the resettlement scheme.
Citizens UK calculates that London should take 2,600 of the 20,000 refugees due to be resettled in this country over the next five years.
The Home Office said the scheme was voluntary and that individual councils were responsible for deciding how many refugees could be resettled in each area.