Deputy First Minister John Swinney: Scottish Government 'very keen' to take in more refugees

Deputy First Minister John Swinney last night insisted the Scottish Government would be “very keen” to take in more refugees beyond the 2,000 Syrians set to be resettled by the end of the decade.

David Cameron announced last September that the UK will accept up to 20,000 refugees from the war-torn country over the next five years.

The Scottish Government has said it will accept at least 10 per cent – just over Scotland's proportionate population share – with the first of the 2,000 individuals to be resettled north of the border having arrived before Christmas.

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However, the SNP and opposition parties lined up to declare the intake fell far short at a Church of Scotland hustings in Edinburgh last night, while former Conservative leader Annabel Goldie said "who knows" whether the numbers settled on by the UK Government are right.

“The Scottish Government would be very keen to take more refugees, but we have to operate within the limitations that the UK Government applies,” said Swinney.

“In the number of refugees that have come to the UK so far, Scotland has disproportionately been at the head of the queue in providing the arrangements and the support to welcome individuals and to incorporate those individuals into our society.

“We’ve argued with the UK Government, we’ve made the offer and the encouragement for them to take more and for us to take more of a share, but I am afraid the UK Government has determined the number of refugees that they’re prepared to take.

“We gave our willing contribution and we would make more of a contribution. But unfortunately it is within those parameters.”

Conservative peer Goldie, who is stepping down as an MSP, said there was no “simple solution” to the “enormous problem” faced regarding the refugee crisis. “I get a little alarmed when people band numbers around because let’s face it, is 20,000 right, is 2,000 right, who knows is the answer,” she added.

Goldie said she was “very glad” about “initial steps” taken, including the arrival of refugees in Scotland, adding that the experience of those who have settled appears to have been positive.

“What we have got to be clear about is that we’ve got to act in concert with our partners in the EU because it is beyond one country to resolve this question,” she added. “I am not dodging the answer, all I am saying is there is no simple solution to this.”

Pressed by Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie on whether the UK is doing enough, she said: “I think we’ve done something very positive so far Willie. But my point is who can answer the question, ‘is it enough?’

“What I think many of the refugees would say is that what they’re actually more anxious to achieve than anything else is to get the country of origin, the country they belong to, made stable again.”

Rennie claimed the current numbers that are to be taken in are “a drop in the ocean” in the context of the millions displaced from Syria and other surrounding countries. “I feel embarrassed that a country that is supposed to be compassionate and outward looking isn’t taking more,” he added.

Former Labour leader Iain Gray said: “We simply should do more, there is no question.”

Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie stressed there was a need to “win the wider cultural argument about the nature of asylum” as well.

He said: “Too often we have been bombarded with anti-immigrant, anti-asylum rhetoric and it’s working. It’s still not defeating the natural human instinct to reach out with empathy and compassion, but it’s twisting the debate in this country terribly.”