Thousands in UK pledge to help resettle refugees

Thousands of volunteers in the UK have pledged to help resettle Syrian refugees and to lobby their local authorities to give safe haven for up to 50 people each.

A number of local authorities have already signed up to a scheme pledging to take in 50 people, according to Citizens UK.

So far, Glasgow city council has offered to house 50-60 Syrian people under the scheme, while councils in Kingston (London), Birmingham and Edinburgh, have agreed to take 50 refugees each. Some authorities involved have already found accommodation for the refugees.

An initiative run by the community campaign groups Citizens UK and Avaaz provides a path for getting more councils onboard to resettle more Syrian refugees via an established UNHCR/Home Office scheme.

Nearly 2,500 people have now signed up with the groups, offering to lobby their local councils and offer practical support, the charity said. The volunteers include doctors, teachers, social workers, psychotherapists, counsellors and community organisers, who can give practical help, including spare rooms in their homes, English tuition and help with resettlement.

Some 20 local groups, including in Bristol, Swansea and Cardiff, are actively working towards persuading their councils to join the initiative.

The key, said Citizens UK, was getting grassroot community support, which then provides councils with the local commitment they need. The groups say they have noticed a surge in support in recent days.

Jonathan Cox, deputy director of Citizens UK, said the UNHCR scheme, which allows resettlement of refugees from camps, was “a bit of a chicken and egg situation”. He said: “The national government have been saying local authorities need to be prepared to help, and local authorities need the support of their local communities. We want community support, so we have volunteers who will help with befriending and welcoming and finding accommodation.”

Cox stressed that Citizens UK, which was mentioned by the Labour leadership candidate Yvette Cooper on Tuesday in a speech urging the government to respond to the humanitarian crisis, was non partisan. But he welcomed the shadow home secretary’s intervention and said the scheme had benefitted from a sea change in the public mood.

“What we are sensing is a real shift, a tipping point in terms of political and public mood” said Cox. “David Cameron is on the back foot, you have senior Conservatives breaking rank and Germany’s actions have put pressure on the UK at an EU level. They need to do something and we’re offering a way they can do it.”

On Thursday afternoon the prime minister responded to the growing calls for UK government action over the crisis by saying that Britain was a moral nation and would “fulfil our moral responsibilities”.

Cox said: “If every local council in Britain pledged to take 50 Syrian refugees, we’d be over the figure Yvette Cooper mentioned on Tuesday.” In her speech, Cooper suggested that if each town in Britain housed 10 families, then 10,000 refugees could be accommodated.

Kevin Davis, leader of Kingston council, south-west London, who has already signed up to the scheme, has written to a further 50 Tory councils, calling on them to join him.

Over the past year, local charities have organised befriending groups and have helped find accommodation in areas with little council stock, to prepare for the arrival of refugees. In Islington, London, for instance, volunteers identified landlords through mosques who were prepared to let to Syrian families at below market rent.

Joon Lynn Goh, one of 10 Citizens UK members in Bristol, a city with an established Syrian community, said she got involved a year ago. Since then, Goh, a producer of In Between Time arts festival, has gained the support of 70 organisations and has been talking to the mayor’s office. “Bristol is a city of sanctuary” she said. “We believe we need to give more assistance and we will find the resources they think are missing.”

Messages posted on the online site of Avaaz, a global civic movement, highlight the compassion among members of the British public for those caught up in the crisis, as well the anger at the response from the British government.

The government, which accepts a lower number of asylum seekers as a proportion of its population than most of the EU, and which has resisted calls for a quota system to share refugees across member states, is facing criticism for its stance on the crisis.

One volunteer, Philip Price, wrote on the Avaaz petition: “This government is a disgrace, helping people comes before all else. I pledge to offer housing and any other help I can possibly give to help the people who are caught in a disaster not of their making.”

Another volunteer, Nadina, wrote: “Nobody should ever be put in the position that these have, through no fault of their own ... And our government seem to blindside it ... Something needs to be done.”

Sam Barratt, campaign director at Avaaz, said: “Across Britain, people are rejecting the government’s shameful decision to close the door to the biggest refugee crisis since [the second world war], and are opening their arms to welcome Syrians into their communities. If enough local authorities listen to their constituents and join this campaign, David Cameron’s excuse, that we don’t have enough local resources, is removed. The people of this country are leading the way, but it is a legal and moral responsibility of this government to respond with compassion to this humanitarian crisis now.”

Two petitions calling on the government to do more to help refugees and migrants seeking a safe haven in Europe have gained more than 370,000 signatures.

A parliamentary petition calling on Cameron to accept more asylum seekers had attracted more than 191,000 signatures on Thursday afternoon, after an image of the body of a small boy drowned and washed up on a Turkish beach appeared in the press and on social media.

A separate change.org petition calling on the home secretary, Theresa May, to give “immediate sanctuary to refugees fleeing war and violence” had topped 184,000 signatures by Thursday afternoon (warning: the petition’s web page features a distressing image).