Students at Ballakermeen High School have criticised the lack of investigation by Tynwald into resettling Syrian refugees.

The school’s politics club, the Voltaire Society, welcomed Laura Cretney, director of Al Ishara Consulting, an island-based consultancy specialising in Middle Eastern affairs and Clare Bader from the One World Centre to look at the issue of Syrian refugees.

The two speakers detailed their experiences of visiting refugee camps in the region and the need for humanitarian resettlement opportunities.

The discussion between Laura, Clare and the students was wide ranging as they sought to explore the details of what an island resettlement programme would look entail and how problems could be overcome.

To explain how problems could be overcome, the students looked at the example of the Isle of Bute and the Shetland Isles, which have taken in small numbers of refugees in what appears to be a successful programme.

Shanne Gutierrez, president of the Voltaire Society, said: ’We were very disappointed with the outcome of the debate.

’We do not understand why the government did not conduct an open investigation into the feasibility of resettling Syrian refugees on the island.’

Fellow student and co-founder of the group Ciara Sowebry added: ’A lot of young people at Ballakermeen are interested in this issue and we are calling on like-minded students in other secondary schools to join our campaign.’

The campaign the students are supporting is #iomyouth4syria as they use social media to try to raise the profile of their campaign and show the island’s politicians they don’t agree with their decisions.

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The meeting at Ballakermeen included a video message from UK-based Syrian activist Baraa Kouja, founder of the charity From Syria With Love.

Baraa, a refugee himself visited the island in 2017 and visited different schools, including Ballakermeen to tell students his experiences.

Ben Tarpey, leader of the student Amnesty group at Ballakermeen, added: ’With moral leadership and good planning, I truly believe we could successfully integrate refugees here.

’The Isle of Man could be an example to the rest of the world.’

An attempt by Garff MHK Daphne Caine to get the government to examine the pros and cons of the island accepting Syrian refugees was blocked by the Council of Ministers in November of last year.

Mrs Caine had secured unanimous support in the Legislative Council but was defeated 11 votes to 10 in the Keys on her proposal.

Of the 11, eight were CoMin members.