Refugee crisis: EU urged to focus funds on displaced Syrians in Middle East

The EU should channel funds into building new schools and hospitals in the Middle Eastern countries hosting millions of Syrian refugees, rather than spending hundreds of millions of pounds on resettling refugees in Europe, a Lebanese politician has urged.

Robert Fadel, an MP for Lebanon’s March 14 alliance, said his country is struggling to cope with more than 1 million refugees from Syria, which amounts to about one quarter of the country’s population. Lebanon hosts more refugees in relation to its population than any other country, according to the UN’s high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR).This week EU leaders met in Valletta, Malta, to address a refugee crisis that has seen 800,000 people arrive on European soil this year, and could mean that as many as 3 million more come to Europe by 2017.

Germany has received about 47.5% of all requests for asylum submitted by Syrians in EU member states this year, according to figures published last week.Britain has said it will take in 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years.

In the coming weeks EU leaders are expected to host Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, at a summit in Brussels to discuss a €3bn deal that would see Ankara police the EU’s southern border with Greece.

The most effective strategy to prevent Syrians from braving a dangerous journey to Europe is to create job opportunities and boost educational prospects in neighbouring countries, where most refugees reside, said Fadel.

He urged European leaders to ramp up programmes that help young people to attend school and get jobs. Without hope for the future, these children could turn to violence or risk their lives to reach Europe, he said.

“If we don’t send those kids to school, [they] are potential migrants in 10 years. If we don’t create jobs where they are, if we don’t educate them, if we don’t train them, then we create situations where people will be looking at opportunities somewhere else,” he said.

To discourage more people from journeying to Europe, the EU should pay for Syrian refugees’ food and housing in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, he said.

There are more than 4.1 million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, according to UNHCR.