UK to accept extra children from Syria

LONDON

Britain is to offer refuge to unaccompanied children from Syria and other conflict zones, the government announced Thursday.

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said his department would fund programs to identify children in camps on Syria’s borders as well as those already in Europe with a family connection to the U.K.

However, the government did not provide a figure for the number of children it would take in on top of Britain’s earlier commitment to accept 20,000 refugees. Save the Children had called for 3,000 to be taken in from across Europe.

“The crisis in Syria and events in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond has separated a large number of refugee children from their families,” Brokenshire said in a statement.

“The vast majority are better off staying in the region so they can be reunited with surviving family members. So we have asked the UNHCR to identify the exceptional cases where a child's best interests are served by resettlement to the U.K. and help us to bring them here.”

Britain says it is the world’s second largest provider of funds to countries bordering Syria.

Save the Children’s Campaigns Director Kirsty McNeill said there was “confusion” over the government announcement, as it suggested only children with relatives already in Britain would be accepted.