Britain to Accept 20K Migrants, But Is It Enough?

France is taking 24K over the next 2 years
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 7, 2015 1:50 PM CDT
Britain to Accept 20K Migrants, But Is It Enough?
Refugees and migrants take part in a protest demanding the authorities to let them go to Athens and continue their trip towards Northern Europe, on the Greek island of Lesbos, on Sept. 5, 2015.   (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

Austria and Germany have already accepted thousands of migrants fleeing the Middle East—now it's Britain's turn. British Prime Minister David Cameron said today that the UK will house up to 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, the BBC reports. Britain has a "moral responsibility" to help, Cameron says, and will focus on accepting needy children and orphans in this "national effort" that he liked to the "Kinder transport" of World War II. Refugees will be allowed to live in the UK for five years, work there, and benefit from the public trough, the PM explained; then each one can apply to settle in Britain.

The Labour party criticized him for not taking enough refugees, and indeed, the Telegraph reports that the UK will only be accepting 4,000 per year. Compare that to France, which agreed to take in 24,000 over the next two years, while Munich alone registered about 7,000 by yesterday and Germany figures it can embrace some 800,000. Another tidbit in Cameron's press conference today: Britain assassinated two of its citizens last month by RAF drone strike in Syria; both were said to be members of the Islamic state, the Guardian reports. "It was necessary and proportionate for the individual self-defence of the UK," says Cameron. The British government plans to investigate the strike, which Amnesty International called "extremely alarming." (More Britain stories.)

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