ONE in four of the Syrian refugees to have arrived in the UK in the past two years has settled in Scotland.
A total of 7,055 people have escaped the civil war and fled to the UK since a scheme to resettle refugees from the country was expanded in 2015.
Now new figures show that 1,800 of the total number have made Scotland their home.
Some of the first to arrive, selected from refugee camps in the Middle East, found a new home on Bute.
Some 28 adults and 31 children were relocated to the island, with one of the refugees going on to open up his own barber's shop just over a year after he was forced to flee the war-torn country.
The figures are published just days after it was revealed the UK Government has not taken in any child refugees under the Lord Dubs scheme this year.
Ben Macpherson, SNP MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, said: “It's excellent that Scotland has welcomed over a quarter of those Syrian refugees who have arrived in the UK, under the resettlement programme, since 2015.
"But more needs to be done – in what is an off-the-scale humanitarian crisis that’s difficult to comprehend here at home.
“A recent all-party inquiry revealed that the UK public would not tolerate the UK Government turning away from this humanitarian crisis if they were more aware of what was happening.
"It also reported that UK ministers have done 'as little as legally possible' to help unaccompanied lone children who have fled war and conflict, which has left them vulnerable to trafficking.
“It’s time for the UK Government to significantly step up its refugee resettlement efforts in the midst of what is possibly the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.”
The Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme (SVPRP) was set up with a target of resettling 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK by 2020.
One group of the refugees arrived from Syria to Bute, where many went on to praise the welcome they had received in Scotland and Rothesay in particular, after reports that some of the families were not happy on the island.
Mounzer Darsani, 32, became a business owner when he opened Scotland's first Syrian barber shop in May this year. Speaking at the time, he said: "My family and I love living on Bute and the people here have been so welcoming and friendly towards us."
The UK immigration minister Brandon Lewis will visit Italy and Greece this week in an attempt to address the delay in lone children being taken into the UK under the Dubs amendment.
The measure was passed in April 2016 amid a campaign to bring 3,000 lone refugee children stuck in camps in Europe to Britain.
Ministers initially estimated local authority capacity at 350 but extended it to 480 in April after saying there had been “an administrative error” in the initial figure.
The Home Office has confirmed that only 200 children were transferred under Dubs in 2016 after the closure of the Calais camp and 280 local authority places remain to be filled.But not a single extra lone child refugee has been brought to the UK this year, and Mr Lewis was suffered cross-party criticism in the House of Commons last week.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said it was difficult not to see the government’s response as anything more than lip service. He wanted to know when the “measly commitment” of 480 would be met.
Mr Lewis said he had spoken to officials in Greece and Italy to speed up the process and would now go in person. “But the transfers must take place in line with the national laws, they must take place safely and they must be in the best interests of each child,” he told MPs.
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