Fears for UK security as Foreign Office moves to scrap unit on conflict and refugee crises | Foreign policy

The Foreign Office has been warned that its plan to ax its unit dealing with escalating conflict and refugee crises is a “real mistake” that “undermines the security of the UK” as the department deals with drastic cuts.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) immigration and conflict directorate, which employs around 100 civil servants, is being abolished at the end of this year, with its work being taken over by the rest of the department.

The Directorate provides advice and technical support to governments and civil society groups in troubled regions such as Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen and the Philippines.

It is planned to close despite Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper writing last week that the FCDO was “stepping up efforts” to support peacebuilding.

The move is part of a wider restructuring that threatens 2,000 jobs – about a quarter of the workforce – and saps diplomats’ morale.

At a select committee hearing in July, FCDO permanent secretary Oliver Robbins told MPs his department had suffered a real budget cut and was affected by the decision to cut international aid spending to 0.3%.

Sarah Champion, Labor chair of the international development committee, said: “We already know the UK’s aid cuts will be devastating, but the impact will be made worse if the FCDO sacks specialist teams in vital areas such as conflict prevention before it has even been decided where the cuts will fall.”

Champion last week called for an immediate halt to staff cuts and restructuring, saying this would not be possible if ministers proceeded without proper planning. “Life will be put at risk”and award-winning FCDO expertise will be “completely lost”.

Alex Ballinger and Lord McConnell, chairs of the all-party parliamentary group on conflict prevention, have written to deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins, calling for a rethink on the decision to close the conflict directorate.

Ballinger, the Labor MP for Halesowen, said: “Conflicts undermine the UK’s own security when they escalate and cross borders, which means losing the expertise this unit provides would be a real mistake.

“Without it, the UK will be less equipped to reduce the enormous human suffering we see in places like Sudan, which has led so many people to flee to Europe. We will be less able to deal with the disruptions caused by conflict, which affect the price of people’s shopping bills in places like the Red Sea.”

Former Scottish Labor leader McConnell said: “The UK has played an important role supporting peace deals, for example by ending conflict between armed groups and central governments in Ethiopia and the Philippines, and enabling dialogue to defuse tensions in India and Pakistan and elsewhere.

“Conflict prevention and resolution must be a clear objective of UK national security policy, and this will require dedicated funding and expertise for mediation support and peacebuilding work.”

The Public and Commercial Services union wrote to the FCDO earlier this month to lodge a dispute petition over the union’s failure to be consulted on staff cuts.

An FCDO spokesman said: “The FCDO is undergoing a process of modernization and restructuring to ensure it is more agile, technically efficient and focused on the UK’s key strategic priorities, including our key objectives of tackling illegal immigration and preventing conflict.

“It is complete nonsense to suggest that changes to directorate structures mean that these targets will be downgraded; in fact, the opposite is true.

“Tackling illegal immigration is one of our highest priorities and will be addressed by our own directorate in the future; preventing and resolving conflict remains more critical than ever to the department’s work as hundreds of staff in the UK and abroad strive to maintain peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.”