British government appoints new minister for Syrian refugees affairs

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday appointed a new minister for Syrian refugees affairs.

Cameron said Watford MP Richard Harrington was appointed as a minister specifically for Syrian refugees.

He said Harrington would make sure that the resettling of the 20,000 refugees "happens rapidly, it happens well, and the whole country pulls together to deliver that".

Some £29m of an extra £100m announced by the British premier this month will be spent in Lebanon paying for food, accommodation and help with schooling for Syrian and Palestinian refugees displaced from Syrian camps.

But the PM reiterated in the wake of the crisis in the Schengen borderless travel area that Britain's strategy was to "discourage people from making the dangerous journey to Europe".

The Prime Minister has visited a refugee camp on the border with Syria to see the impact of the humanitarian crisis "at source".

David Cameron visited a UN operated camp in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, home to 500 people in 90 tents including many children.

He met a vulnerable family due to be resettled to the UK as part of a commitment by the Government last week to take 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020.

Over the summer the PM came under pressure to change strategy on Syria after hundreds of refugees drowned making the perilous journey from the war torn country into Europe.

But the Government stresses its strategy has not changed.

The UK is expanding program to accept vulnerable displaced people from camps in the region, but will not join in the EU effort to disperse arrivals in Greece, Italy and Hungary

Source: MENA