LONDON
British experts believe the U.K.'s decision to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years is "symbolic."
After outpouring of sympathy for refugees seeking safety in Europe, the British government was criticized over plans to accept around 4,000 refugees. Then, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Sept. 7 that his country would increase the number to 20,000.
"The resettlement of 20,000 refugees over five years is certainly a relief to the concerned individuals, but the number is too small to be a significant relief to the refugee crisis as such. It can thus be considered almost symbolic," Franck Duvell, senior researcher and associate professor at Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, told Anadolu Agency on Monday.
Durvell added that there are 11 million displaced Syrians, and over four million in other countries. "So resettling 20,000 would represent 0.5 percent of all international Syrian refugees."
He criticized resettling 5,000 per year over a period of five years, as the U.K. government plans, and said: "Refugees need help and a perspective now, not in five years. Giving refugees a five-year horizon before they receive help is almost cynical."
Durvell defined the U.K.'s initiative as a "solo action" that was not part of a coordinated EU response. "The U.K.thus continues to refuse a European solution and insists in its national approach."
Another expert, Neil Quilliam, acting head of the Middle East and North Africa program and project director of the Syria and Its Neighbours Policy Initiative at Chatham House, said Cameron's Lebanon visit aimed to demonstrate that the U.K. has made a contribution towards the refugee crisis.
During the visit, Cameron argued that his country's $1.5 billion in aid to Syrian refugees since 2012 helped discourage hundreds of thousands from "risking their lives seeking to get to Europe."
Quilliam, however, said: "Only taking 20,000, and particularly at this very late stage, doesn't even have any symbolic value. So even to have symbolic value, it would need to increase these numbers significantly."
Neighbouring states require "significant" support, Quilliam added. "I was in Turkey last week. Turkey is accommodating two million refugees. This is a phenomenal number. 20,000 fails in comparison to two million."
The U.N. estimates that more than 220,000 victims have died since the civil war began and 10 million have been displaced -- 6 million internally.
According to the U.N., there are 1.9 million Syrian refugees registered in Turkey alone as of Aug. 25.
