PM rules out dispensing with checks on Ukrainian refugees
Speaking at PMQs on Wednesday, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey raises example of Jewish refugees escaping Nazis allowed into the UK
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Boris Johnson has ruled out dispensing with checks on Ukrainian refugees attempting to flee to the UK from their war-ravaged country, telling MPs this would “expose this country to unnecessary security risks.”
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey told the Prime Minister that “in the months before World War II the UK took in more than 60,000 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution” in the Commons on Wednesday.
Davey also noted that thousands of Ugandans expelled by former leader Idi Amin, Tamils escaping civil war, Bosnians, and Syrians had been welcomed into the UK but the Home Office was now “turning away hundreds of Ukranian refugees escaping Putin because they did not have the right paperwork.”
The Lib Dem leader then added: “Can you Prime Minister not see this flies in the face of this country’s proud tradition of providing sanctuary?”
But responding, the PM insisted that what Davey had said about the UK was “completely wrong” saying “no-one has been turned away.”
He pointed to the refugees from Afghanistan, the applications to settle here from Hong Kong Chinese and the thousands of Syrians who had arrived here.
Johnson then added: “It is important to have checks, let me make this clear.
“People need to understand, there are some people who would like to dispense with checks altogether .. simply to wave people thorough.
“I have got to say I do think that is irresponsible and I do not think that is the approach we should be taking.
“We must in no doubt… we know how unscrupulous Vladimir Putin can be.
“It would not be right to expose this country to unnecessary security risks.”
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