No to refugees, yes to refugee-causing wars, British government says

This video says about itself:

Iraqi refugees mark six years of war in poverty – 21 March 2009

Six years on from the Iraq war millions of its citizens are marking the anniversary as refugees in another country.

There are around 700 thousand Iraqi refugees in Jordan. Most are poor and destitute as they do not have the right to work. Even if the security situation is improving in Iraq they can not afford to go home.

Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El Shamayleh reports on what life is like for some of them.

By Luke James in Britain:

David Cameron: only military can solve humanitarian crisis

Thursday 10th September 2015

DAVID CAMERON claimed yesterday that Britain must use “hard military force” to solve the escalating humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.

The Tory Prime Minister’s chest-beating suggests that a second vote seeking Parliament’s permission to bomb Syria is imminent — he lost the first in 2013.

His comments at Prime Minister’s questions (PMQs) come just two days after he revealed that he had authorised a drone strike in Syria that killed two British jihadists.

Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards warned: “This reckless rhetoric should sound alarm bells for all those committed to ending, not intensifying, this brutal conflict.”

In her final PMQs as acting Labour leader, Harriet Harman used all six of her questions to ask about the government’s meagre response to the refugee crisis.

Mr Cameron said: “We can do all we can as a moral, humanitarian nation by taking people and spending money on aid and helping in refugee camps.”

But he added: “Assad has to go, Isil (an acronym for Islamic State) has to go.

“And some of that will require not just spending money, not just aid, not just diplomacy, but it will on occasion require hard military force.”

…

However, opposition parties united later to table a motion demanding that the government do more to “provide sanctuary to our fellow human beings.”

It called on the Prime Minister to increase the number of refugees Britain will take from 20,000, including refugees already in Europe.

“Considering that the refugee crisis we are witnessing is a direct result of military action in the Middle East by Western governments, further action will only heighten human misery in the region,” Mr Edwards added.

During PMQs, Green MP Caroline Lucas raised the role of British arms sales in creating instability in the region.

Speaking as the world’s biggest annual arms fair began in London, Ms Lucas asked: “Is it not time for the government to recognise the link between arms sales and the terrible tragedy that we see unfolding around us?”

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