Mind your own business!’ - UN official blasted for ordering Britain to take MORE refugees
“BRITAIN should be forced to take in more of the flood of migrants making their way across the Mediterranean, according to a senior UN official.
In a series of controversial remarks Peter Sutherland condemned the UK for not housing its fair share of people fleeing war and turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East.
His comments, which have been attacked by Tory MPs, came on the same day a survey was published showing that four in ten Britons want the Government to shut our borders to refugees completely.
Mr Sutherland, who is the UN secretary-general’s special representative on international migration, said British politicians risk creating a climate of “xenophobia and racism” because they have not done enough to explain the benefits of immigration.
He said: “Migration is something which won’t go away, it is something that we have to constructively engage with and not something that we should fear or that should create xenophobia and racism as it does in many societies around the world.
“The Germans and the Swedes are taking far more per capita than the United Kingdom, and a fair settlement of this issue on the basis of objective criteria – population, GDP, unemployment, whatever issues you think may be appropriate – seems to be a reasonable way of dealing with this.”
However furious Tories rounded on the Irish politician, who is also a chairman of Goldman Sachs International, telling him Britain’s immigration policy is “none of his business”.
Andrew Percy, the MP for Brigg and Goole, raged: “These United Nations people should stop mouthing off about things that are none of their business. They are unelected; they don’t represent anyone and they should stop what seems to be a very anti-British sentiment.
“What is happening in the Mediterranean is incredibly sad, but the only beneficiary of this policy of taking in more migrants would be the people smugglers who profit from this horror.
Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secretary, dismissed his comments and said Britain had contributed more humanitarian support to tackle the migrant process than “practically the whole of the EU.
“We are putting our shoulder to the wheel. Were the Government to start welcoming migration from Syria and some of these very difficult places in Africa, public support for Britain’s development policy would start to evaporate.”
The row comes after a survey by charity Islamic Relief showed that almost half of people think Britain should not take in people fleeing Syria and other Middle Eastern countries.
The charity’s director, Jehangir Malik, said the results show the public’s attitude towards migrants has “hardened” significantly in recent years.
There were chaotic scenes at the French-Italian border at the weekend after hundreds of migrants who had gathered at crossing points were turned away by French riot police.
Refugees were shown huddled in foil blankets on coastal rocks, holding signs – written in English – demanding to be allowed to continue their journey from Italy to northern Europe.
They threatened to hurl themselves into the sea if blocked by the French….”
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