As Refugee Week begins, the Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion in Parliament calling on the Government to establish safe and legal routes for refugees to come to the UK.

The motion, tabled by the party’s Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP, calls on the Government to resettle 10,000 refugees each year, as well as a further 10,000 unaccompanied refugee children from elsewhere in Europe over the next 10 years.

It follows Home Office data showing that just 353 refugees were brought to the UK last year, compared with 4,968 the year before.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said:

The UK has a proud history of providing sanctuary to those in need, but now the Conservative Government is turning its back on refugees.

Priti Patel is threatening to punish refugees who don’t come here by safe and legal routes, but at the same time she is failing to provide those routes.

Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to make an ambitious, ten-year commitment to resettle 10,000 vulnerable refugees a year from Syria and other dangerous conflict areas.

That is the best way to combat people smuggling and human trafficking, and to prevent people from making dangerous attempts to cross the Channel.

The full text of the motion is as follows;

Refugee Week 2021

That this House supports Refugee Week 2021, which takes place from 14th to 20th June with the theme ‘We Cannot Walk Alone’; notes that there are an estimated 26 million refugees and 4 million asylum seekers around the world today; further notes that the UK has a proud history of providing sanctuary to those in need, and believes that this tradition must be upheld; further believes that providing refugees with safe and legal routes to the UK is the best way to combat people smuggling and human trafficking and to prevent desperate people from making dangerous attempts to cross the Channel or the Mediterranean; notes with concern that only 353 refugees were resettled in the UK in 2020-21, 93% fewer than the previous year; regrets that the Government has not made a new commitment to relocate unaccompanied refugee children from elsewhere in Europe following the closure of the scheme under Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 in July 2020; and calls on the Government to urgently make a new long-term commitment to resettle 10,000 vulnerable refugees in the UK each year, as well as a further 10,000 refugee children from elsewhere in Europe over the next 10 years.