David Cameron Says Britain Will Accept More Syrian Children as Refugees. Watch Video

LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron gave in to pressure from the House of Lords on Wednesday and announced that Britain would accept more unaccompanied Syrian children as refugees.

Mr. Cameron did not specify numbers, but acted after a campaign led by a Labour peer, Alf Dubs, who came to Britain from Czechoslovakia in 1939, at age 6, fleeing the Nazis in a program called the kinder transport, in which hundreds of Jewish children were rescued.

“We’re going to go round the local authorities and see what more we can do,” Mr. Cameron told Parliament.

But he did not want “to take steps that will encourage people to make this dangerous journey,” from Syria to Europe, he said.

Britain has agreed to take 20,000 refugees over five years from those in camps outside Europe and is providing aid to those camps. But Mr. Cameron has refused to take part in a European Union plan to redistribute refugees already in Europe, arguing that it only encourages others to take to the sea.

Mr. Dubs said later, “I trust the prime minister will be true to his word and move swiftly to ensure the Home Office works closely with local authorities to find foster families to give these young people a stable and secure home.”

Source: nytimes