LONDON,
June 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Britain has earmarked three
disused military bases for the accommodation of thousands of refugees
entering the country should war break out between India and Pakistan
over Kashmir, a U.K. newspaper reported Sunday, quoting government
officials, news agencies reported.
"If
there is large-scale war, then millions of people will be displaced
and, for historical and cultural reasons, we must assume that a large
percentage would wish to come to Britain," the Sunday Telegraph
quoted a Home Office official as saying, according to Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"We
have to be prepared for a large number of people coming in a short
space of time and that is why we have drawn up these contingency plans
to use former military bases," he added.
More
than one million people in India and Pakistan are related to British
citizens, said the Telegraph. Home Secretary David Blunkett
would ask Europe to share the burden of any influx, it added.
Estimates
of the number of people who might try to reach Britain in the event of
a war between the two nuclear powers range from 150,000 to more than a
million.
About
100,000 people have a right of residency in Britain because 21,000
people in India and Pakistan have British passports, and it is
estimated that each has an average five dependants, the paper said.
Hundreds
of British people of Indian and Pakistani origin have already
telephoned Government departments about bringing relatives to London.
Many have asked about the procedures for their relatives to seek
asylum, saying they believe there will be no end to the Kashmir crisis
even if war does not break out soon, the Telegraph said.
The
Foreign Office last week advised Britons to leave India and Pakistan,
hardening previous advice that they should "consider"
getting out as tensions increased between the two nuclear neighbors.
Up
to 20,000 British expatriates live in India, of which half are
registered with consular officials, according to estimates by the
Foreign Office, which recognizes that the real figure could be much
higher.
British
passport holders would be granted residency rights. Those who had no
family they wished to stay with would be entitled to emergency council
housing and to claim state benefits, the paper said.
Non-passport
holders would have to remain at the camps and go through the asylum
process. All of them would be entitled to state benefits, and some
would eventually be provided with temporary accommodation outside the
camps
