Government urged to increase and speed up aid to refugees

BOTH THE bishop with responsibility for migration and the church aid agency Cafod have called on the Government to do more to tackle the refugee crisis, writes Joanna Moorhead.

Bishop Patrick Lynch, auxiliary in Southwark and the bishops’ conference spokesman on migration, said Prime Minister David Cameron’s promise to accommodate a further 20,000 refugees was “an important part of our national response” to the crisis, but went on: “I urge the Government to prioritise the initial part of its five-year time frame and to provide the essential resources needed, so that these refugees can be received and resettled at the earliest opportunity and the option of extending sanctuary to others explored.”

The scale of the tragedy required “a generous and sustained response from our Government”, he said.

This week Bishop Lynch was among the faith leaders to join a new, crowd-funded National Refugee Welcome Board launched by the campaign group Citizens UK. The new board will liaise with local authorities and members of the public to help coordinate the provision of shelter for refugees.

Cafod’s director of advocacy and communications, Neil Thorns, felt the Government’s response didn’t go far enough. “The Government is proposing to take in these refugees over five years when the most vulnerable people need support immediately,” he said.

In addition, he said, the British Government could not and should not wash its hands of people who had already reached the EU. More than 2,000 Catholics have emailed Mr Cameron in support of a Cafod campaign calling on the Government to do more to help  refugees settle in the UK.