UK pledges additional 115 million pounds for refugees

LONDON

The U.K. will contribute an additional 115 million pounds ($175 million) in response to the refugee crisis, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Wednesday.

“The new funding from the U.K. includes 100 million pounds for lifesaving aid in Syria and the region,” a statement from the U.K government said.

The announcement came after EU leaders gathered in Brussels for an emergency meeting to discuss the refugee crisis.

The statement also said the British PM will call on other EU leaders “to provide new funding to help meet urgent humanitarian needs in Syria and its neighbouring countries."

The latest funding brought the total British contribution for the crisis to 1.2 billion pounds ($1.8 billion), it added.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced on Wednesday that the EU would also increase funds to “tackle the refugee crisis” in a press meeting at the summit.

EU interior ministers agreed Tuesday to relocate 120,000 migrants from “frontline” European states Greece, Italy and Hungary.

Britain, unlike France, is not a member of Europe’s border-free Schengen zone and is not bound by the decision.

However, earlier this month, Cameron announced the U.K. would accept 20,000 refugees over five years and later visited a refugee camp in Jordan where he said Britain wanted to focus on the most vulnerable refugees living in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

The U.K. Home Office said Tuesday the first group from the 20,000 had arrived but did not give any further details.

Turkey is home to more than 2 million Syrian refugees on whom it has spent $8 billion since the start of the Syrian civil war.