LABOUR LEADER Jeremy Corbyn MP visited refugee camps in Jordan at the end of June to mark World Refugee Day – and from there he called on the UK and European governments to do more to help refugees.
Corbyn implored governments to help reduce the number of refugees by ending their “bomb first, talk later” approach and working harder to end conflict across the world. He pointed out that conflict anywhere in the Middle East draws in other countries, perpetuating rather than eliminating armed conflict and terror attacks across the world.
Corbyn outlined how a Labour Government would work for peace in Syria for three reasons: to help the people of Syria itself, whether they are still in the country or are living elsewhere as refugees; to help the people in neighbouring countries who are hosting large refugee populations; and to help the security of everyone across the world.
Speaking from the al-Baqa’a refugee camp, the Labour Leader said that he was committed to do whatever was necessary to keep people safe. Ending conflicts, he said, was at the heart of Labour’s approach to domestic security.
The UK government has recently approved the release of $50 million to help Palestinian refugees. The money is to go towards plugging the aid gap after the US cut its funding from $365 to just $60.
“We have a historical responsibility towards the Palestinian people and, as one of the world’s richest countries, we can and we must take a leading role in meeting the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges,” he explained. “Instead of reducing funds to vital, life-saving refugee agencies which support children in schools, as President Trump is doing, the UK must stand apart from the USA by increasing its funding.
“While we have rightly been one of UNRWA’s biggest donors, it is shameful that the UK Government has not already stepped up to pledge more funding to UNRWA alongside other poorer UN Member States which have already done so. June 20 was international refugee day and, as I said in the British Parliament on Wednesday, there are 65 million people and more around the world who are refugees and that number is growing. It is more than at any time in our history.
“I think the world needs to recognise that and give the support necessary to refugees but also to deal with the causes of refugees flows from the Israel-Palestine conflict, to Syria, to Yemen. I came to this camp today to see the work of the UN Relief and Work Agency and to meet the principle of the school and have a very interesting meeting with the elected school council, a very impressive group of young people who told me their ambitions to be doctors, to be engineers, to be scientists and we’ve got to make sure they can be that.”
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