Britain, France agree to support Syria's neighbors

LONDON

Britain and France have agreed to do more to help Syrian refugees sheltering in neighboring countries ahead of an emergency EU meeting to discuss the migrant crisis, Downing Street said Wednesday.

In a statement, a spokesman said Prime Minister David Cameron agreed with President Francois Hollande that the EU should assist countries like Turkey in keeping refugees close to their home nation.

“On migration, they agreed that we must use [the] European Council [meeting] to focus on a more comprehensive approach, in particular increasing assistance for the countries neighboring Syria to enable more refugees to stay there,” the spokesman said.

“They also agreed that EU countries should do more to return migrants who don’t have a genuine claim for asylum to their countries of origin.”

Cameron met Hollande at his country residence in Cambridgeshire on Tuesday evening.

EU interior ministers agreed Tuesday to relocate 120,000 migrants from “frontline” European states Greece, Italy and Hungary. On Wednesday night, EU leaders are to vote on ratifying the deal.

Britain, unlike France, is not a member of Europe’s border-free Schengen agreement and is not bound by the decision.

However, earlier this month Cameron announced the U.K. would accept 20,000 refugees over five years and later visited a refugee camp in Jordan where he said Britain wanted to focus on the most vulnerable refugees living in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

The U.K. Home Office said Tuesday the first group from the 20,000 had arrived but did not give any further details.

Cameron’s spokesman added that the premier and Hollande “discussed how a big part of the answer to the refugee crisis must be a solution to the situation in Syria and they agreed on the need to inject momentum into the political process there.”

The two leaders agreed to continue working as part of the anti-Daesh coalition to defeat the extremist group.