British PM, on visit to camps in Lebanon and Jordan, says other countries should ‘step up to the plate’ and increase aid

Britain’s EU partners face a “moral imperative” to match the £1bn in aid the UK has provided to Syria’s neighbouring countries in a move that would reduce the flow of refugees to Europe by improving conditions in camps, David Cameron has said.

As Theresa May, the home secretary, led UK criticisms against EU plans to introduce quotas of refugees, the prime minister said that other European countries should “step up to the plate” and increase funding for the camps.

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The prime minister spoke out during a one-day trip to refugee camps housing thousands of refugees close to the Syrian border in Lebanon and Jordan.

Amid tight security, which has been stepped up after he ordered the drone strike that killed two Islamic State militants in Syria last month, the prime minister first travelled by RAF Chinook helicopter to a camp in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon after landing in Beirut following an overnight flight from London.

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He then flew by chartered plane to the Jordanian capital, Amman, before being flown to the Zaatari camp by a Jordanian air force helicopter. The camp houses 80,000 refugees.

The prime minister’s trip, which coincided with a strong intervention by the home secretary in Brussels against an EU refugee quota proposal, was designed to highlight Britain’s strategy of directing resources at the camps. Downing Street said this approach discouraged refugees from making what Cameron describes as the “perilous journey” to Europe.

Cameron said: “Without British aid hundreds of thousands more could be risking their lives seeking to get to Europe. So these funds are part of our comprehensive approach to tackle migration from the region.”

Britain has provided £1bn in aid to the region since 2012, making the UK the second largest bilateral donor after the US. Cameron says this aid has helped to ensure that just 3% of Syria’s 11 million refugees have sought asylum in Europe.

Speaking as he landed in Amman, the prime minister admitted conditions are “not great” in Lebanon after meeting a mother at a camp in the Bekaa Valley who has to feed her 10 children on $13.50 a month. The camps in Lebanon for Syrian refugees are given the lesser designation of informal tented settlements because the country already houses 450,000 Palestinian refugees.

Cameron said: “Obviously in Lebanon they are not great conditions. That country is under enormous pressure. Something like another quarter to a third of its population has arrived and is living there. All the credit to the Lebanese people and the Lebanese government for what they are doing.

“It is a fact that the world food programme and UNHCR are underfunded. If other countries could give as much as Britain has done we could solve that problem. We have given something in the region of £1bn. That is more than 10 times some other countries in our region. I would encourage others to step up to the plate and spend and invest in the way that Britain has done. There is a moral imperative to do that but also there is a very real connection with the migration crisis in Europe.”

The prime minister was more impressed by the giant Zaatari refugee camp near Jordan’s border with Syria, which is run by the UNHCR. It has the formal status of a refugee camp and has more developed facilities than the more makeshift camps in Lebanon.

He attended a class of young Syrian children supported by Save the Children, where most of the pupils said their ambitions were to return home where they would like to grow up to be teachers or lawyers. One boy said he hoped to have a swimming pool.

Cameron told the class: “We will go on supporting you for as long as you need to be here. But we hope you will be able to go home.”

The prime minister underlined Britain’s belief that aid should be focused on the region by announcing that he has appointed the Conservative MP Richard Harrington as a Home Office minister with sole responsibility for Syrian refugees. The visit took place a week after Cameron announced that Britain is to accept an extra 20,000 refugees from camps in Syria’s neighbouring countries.

The prime minister made the announcement after widespread public grief following the publication of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian refugee, whose body was photographed washed up on a Turkish beach after his family failed to reach Greece.