LONDON – U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has taken a battering over his handling of Europe’s refugee crisis, but in one respect — offering to open the door to those who haven’t yet made it to Europe, rather than those who have — he is right and his European critics are wrong.

Cameron on Monday set out his new approach — let’s call it the Aylan Kurdi policy, after the drowned Syrian toddler whose harrowing photograph forced Britain’s leader to reverse his previous, and frankly shameful, zero-tolerance line on refugees. In a statement to parliament, Cameron said Britain will now resettle as many as 20,000 from refugees from camps around Syria during the next 4½ years. This resettlement program already existed, but until now it was a transparent ruse to accept as few refugees as possible: just 216 Syrians since March 2014.

At the same time, Cameron restated his refusal to take part in the European Commission’s German-led plan for a quota system to redistribute those refugees who have already reached the European Union. On Sunday, former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi became just the latest European figure to lecture Cameron on this, warning that he will face retaliation for his ungenerous stance when he asks leaders for help with the EU reforms he needs if he is going to win a referendum on whether the U.K. should stay in the bloc.