Biodun.BBC: BREAKING NEWS--First Syrian refugees arrive in UK

by Selina O'Grady and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, London

3 minutes ago

The first of 20,000 Syrian refugees to be taken in by the UK have arrived in the country, the Home Office has said.

The government has not provided details of the exact number or where in the UK they are being resettled.
The refugees will receive housing, access to medical care and education, and they can work from day one, under the UK's resettlement scheme.
It comes as EU ministers approved plans to relocate 120,000 migrants in two years. The UK opted out of the scheme.
But David Cameron is expected to discuss it with French President Francois Hollande when the pair meet at Chequers on Tuesday night ahead of an EU leaders' summit on the refugee crisis on Wednesday.

'Very vulnerable'

Under the UK's plans, refugees will be brought to the country from camps in countries neighbouring Syria.
The prime minister has said the UK will take the most vulnerable people, including disabled children, women who had been raped and men who had been tortured.
Those being resettled are being selected by the UN on the basis of need.
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said the first arrivals amounted to "little more than a handful" of "very vulnerable" refugees.
Eventually the UK would have to take about 400 refugees a month in order to meet its 20,000 target by 2020, he added.
Under the government's Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme, the refugees will be granted five years' humanitarian protection which includes access to public funds, the labour market and the possibility of family reunion, if a person was split up from their partner or child when leaving their country.
After those five years they can apply to settle in the UK.
Mr Cameron said the scheme would be funded for the first 12 months by the government.
Britain has been under pressure to take in more people as Europe struggles to deal with a huge influx of refugees - most fleeing conflict in Syria but large numbers also fleeing violence and poverty in Afghanistan, Eritrea and Kosovo.