Britain allocates £1bn to keep Syrian refugees close to home

Britain has pledged £1 billion to discourage Syrians affected by the civil war from travelling to Europe, the Foreign Office said in a statement on Tuesday.

The British Middle East Media Hub in Dubai said the funds include 840 million pounds of pledges made at a Syria aid conference in London in February last year. The announcement comes ahead of an international donor’s conference in Brussels which Britain is co-hosting.

Read: Donors seek more funds for Syria, EU presses for peace

According to the statement, Prime Minister Theresa May, will focus the extra British funds on creating jobs and providing education for refugees. The funding aims to stabilise these countries and enable them to withstand the constant influx of refugees in search of shelter as well as give them the opportunity to build a long-term, real future for themselves in the region, the statement added.

Some 1.6 million refugees, mostly from Syria have arrived in Europe from 2014 to 2016.