Refugee crisis: Britain should not let Syrian children freeze to death, says Yvette Cooper

Britain should not “stand on the sidelines” while “children freeze to death” in refugee camps, defeated Labour leadership candidate Yvette Cooper will say.

The former shadow Home Secretary will say the Government must remove refugees from its net migration target if it is to help the most vulnerable Syrians before the arrival of winter.

Ms Cooper, who is now the chair of Labour’s refugee taskforce, will say David Cameron’s response to the humanitarian crisis unfolding on Europe’s borders has been “far too weak” and will say the inclusion of refugees in net migration target is acting as a barrier to “Britain doing its bit” to support those fleeing conflict and persecution.

Speaking on Tuesday she is expected to tell a rally of activists from campaign group Citizens UK that the Prime Minister must act in the next month as the “looming winter” threatens more than more than three million refugees living in camps across the Middle East.

In previous winters camps in Lebanon and Turkey have endured freezing temperatures and difficult weather conditions, including snowstorms. Despite the length of the crisis many still live in camps or makeshift homes near the border with Lebanon. In the past temperatures in the region have dropped so low that icicles have formed on huts.

The Citizens UK rally, which is being held outside parliament on Tuesday evening, is being held to commemorate six Syrian children who died in refugee camp last winter due to freezing conditions.

Ms Cooper will say the Government was forced into action last month by the huge outpouring of sympathy from the British, but is now failing to deliver even on the "unambitious" new target of allowing 4,000 Syrian refugees to come to Britain each year.

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Citizens UK is calling for 1,000 of the most vulnerable Syrians to be resettled by Christmas and for 50,000 Syrians to be resettled in the next five years.

Despite the change in Britain’s attitude to refugees since images of Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach were published, the Government has refused to reveal how many of the 20,000 have been resettled until the next quarterly asylum statistics are published at the end of November. “We need immediate action to help not just those in the Syrian camps, but some of those who have made it to Europe too. If every county and city took ten families we could help 10,000 people over the next year alone. As Governments across Europe struggle to cope and the weather gets colder, it is no longer an option for the Prime Minister to turn his back and pretend this isn't our problem,” Ms Cooper will say.

Ms Cooper's “Crisis Action Plan”, which she is calling on the Government to implement before the end of the month, calls for the removal of refugees from the net migration target and for the Home Office to immediately publish details of how many Syrian refugees have come to Britain in the last month.

Ms Cooper will say: “So far the British Government has taken very few Syrian refugees and won't tell us how many have arrived. They need to tell us immediately how many have come, and how many are due each month. Currently the Government is way off track to meet the Prime Minister's pledge of helping 4,000 a year, and is still doing far less than other European countries to help.”

Labour’s refugee taskforce is also calling for Cameron to “end his opposition to helping refugees already in Europe” and for the Home Office to work with local authorities to take in more refugees as quickly as possible.

Ms Cooper will add: “Across the country people are joining the call for Britain to do more. Faith groups, community organisations, charities, councils, landlords, lawyers, businesses, universities are all calling for more action. Citizens UK and other organisations have shown the powerful demand for action from people in every corner of our country.

The government says it has granted asylum or other forms of leave to almost 5,000 Syrians since 2011 and is the second largest bilateral donor of air in the world in response to the Syrian conflict.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are working hard to bring in greater numbers of people who desperately need our assistance under the expanded scheme,” the spokesperson said.

“Preparations are being made for a steady stream of arrivals in manageable numbers following local authority places being secured."