By Alex Barker in Brussels, Richard Milne in Oslo and George Parker in London From Financial Times UK
Britain is now standing alone in refusing to accept asylum seekers from the front lines of the EU migration crisis after Denmark bowed to pressure and joined the “burden sharing” effort.
Responding to a groundswell of public sympathy over the biggest migration across Europe in half a century, Prime Minister David Cameron last month agreed to provide refuge to 20,000 Syrians over the next five years.
But to the chagrin of many governments in Europe, Mr Cameron insisted Britain would only accept refugees from camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, rather than from within the EU.
Mr Cameron defends his stance as a point of principle. He believes taking migrants within the EU would encourage others to travel and make the situation worse. Even so it leaves him in an awkward political spot as he prepares for a summit of EU leaders on Wednesday.
While Britain is in a minority of countries under no legal obligation to help frontline EU countries facing a sudden rise in asylum seekers, Germany has led calls for the entire bloc to join a collective solution. Berlin has convinced almost all the other countries to make a contribution of some sort.
Mr Cameron will mount a vigorous defence of his policy in Brussels, arguing that Britain is right to focus its efforts on helping refugees on the border with Syria. “We feel we have got it right,” said an ally of the prime minister.
Ireland volunteered to take more than 600 migrants from the first round of 40,000 refugees shared by member states, even though it enjoys the same opt-out from asylum policy as Britain.
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Denmark’s decision to follow suit — it too enjoys an opt-out — leaves Britain as the only country refusing to participate that is not on the frontline of the crisis, such as Hungary or Greece.
The move from the new Danish centre-right government to voluntarily take in 1,000 extra refugees came despite stiff opposition from the anti-immigration Danish People’s party.
The DPP normally supports the government in parliament but such is the level of public feeling in Denmark that prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen is assured of a majority even without their backing.
“Regardless of what one might think about the government’s immigration policies, there are refugees in Denmark and more refugees are coming. We as a society have a responsibility for them,” Mr Rasmussen said on Thursday.
Mr Cameron has sharply criticised Europe for its response to this crisis, saying many EU leaders failed to support refugees in the Middle East.
Earlier this week Mr Cameron said: “Britain has given more than 10 times some of the countries in our region, and I would encourage others to step up to the plate and spend and invest in the way that Britain has done.”
The £1bn the UK had allocated to spend on the humanitarian crisis in Syria is the largest contribution of any EU country.
President François Hollande of France, who is visiting Downing Street on Tuesday, has made clear he does not see Britain’s legal opt-out as an excuse for failing to show solidarity.
“Everyone must understand that you can’t demand solidarity when there’s a problem and shirk your duties when there are solutions,” he said in comments that made a link with Mr Cameron’s effort to renegotiate Britain’s EU membership terms.
IMAGE: ©AFP Migrants and refugees wait under the sun at a railway station near the border crossing between Serbia and Croatia
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