France offers asylum to UK-bound Syrian refugees

France has offered asylum to 60 Syrian refugees who have been holding out at a loading dock in the Channel port of Calais since Wednesday, official sources confirmed. The offer was made by the local Prefect in an attempt to diffuse a volatile situation as the refugees tried to get permission to travel to Britain and a number went on hunger strike. The French Foreign Ministry confirmed the offer had been made but said the matter was in the hands of the Interior Ministry. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Philippe Lalliot said in a related comment that "over 99 percent of demands" for refugee status by Syrians were being granted at this time. Police had tried on Wednesday and Thursday to get the refugees to surrender and finally to dislodge them by force, but two refugees climbed on an elevated dock and threatened to commit suicide. Sources close to the drama said there were women, some pregnant, and children among the group. French sources said that the Syrians did not want to stay in France, where they say they received harsh treatment, and they want to go to Britain. British immigration services were heading to Calais Friday to meet with the Syrian refugees and presumably examine their status. France has not reported a huge rise in requests for asylum here from Syrian refugees and has granted 900 people, plus the same number of children, refugee status, the Foreign Ministry said. But officials said there were a number of other Syrians here with different types of status, including long-term visas. Germany, by comparison, has said it will take 5,000 refugees from Syria and the UN Refugee Agency is currently working out quotas for a number of countries. Close to two million people have fled the fighting in Syria and the bulk are living in temporary camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and a lesser quantity in Iraq. But there are as many as five million internally displaced in Syria as well, according to NGO estimates, and some of these may also want to leave the country. Reliable estimates put the number of killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 at close to 110,000.