The Foreign Office has been warned that plans to ax its dedicated unit on emerging conflicts and refugee crises are a “real error” that “undermines Britain’s security” as the department grapples with deep cuts.
The Migration and Conflict Directorate of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), which employs about 100 civil servants, is being abolished at the end of this year and its work absorbed into the rest of the department.
The directorate provides advice and technical assistance to governments and civil society groups in crisis locations, including Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen and the Philippines.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper wrote last week that the FCDO is “increasing efforts” to support peace-building, yet it is expected to close.
The move is part of a wider restructuring that threatens 2,000 jobs – about a quarter of the workforce – and has damaged morale among diplomats.
During a select committee hearing in July, FCDO Permanent Secretary, Oliver Robbins, told MPs that his department was experiencing real budget cuts and was affected by the decision to cut international aid spending by 0.3%.
Sarah Champion, Labor chair of the International Development Committee, said: “We already know that cuts to UK aid would be devastating, but if the FCDO removes expert teams in key areas such as conflict prevention, the impact will be even worse – before it has even been decided where the cuts will be.”
Champion last week called for an immediate halt to staff cuts and restructuring, saying that if ministers proceed without proper planning “lives will be at risk”, and prized FCDO expertise “will be lost forever”.
Alex Ballinger, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on conflict resolution, and Lord McConnell have written to Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Collins, urging him to reconsider the decision to close the conflict directorate.
Ballinger, who is the Labor MP for Halesowen, said: “Conflict weakens the UK’s own security when it escalates and spills over the borders, meaning it would be a real error to lose the expertise provided by this unit.
“Without it, the UK will be less able to alleviate the enormous humanitarian suffering in places like Sudan, which is causing huge numbers of people to flee to Europe. We will be less able to deal with conflict-induced disruption in places like the Red Sea, which will hit the prices of people’s grocery bills.”
Former Scottish Labor leader McConnell said: “The UK has played a key role in supporting peace agreements, for example ending conflicts between armed groups and central governments in Ethiopia and the Philippines, as well as enabling negotiations to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan and elsewhere.
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“Conflict prevention and resolution must be an explicit goal of UK national security policy – and will require dedicated funding and expertise to mediation support and peace-building work.”
The Public and Commercial Services Union had written to the FCDO earlier this month to register a dispute over the lack of consultation with the union regarding staff cuts.
An FCDO spokesperson said: “The FCDO is undergoing a modernization and restructuring process to ensure it is more agile, technologically capable and focused on the UK’s key strategic priorities, including our core objectives of tackling illegal migration and preventing conflict.
“It is complete nonsense to suggest that changes to directorate structures mean that those objectives will be downgraded; in fact, quite the opposite is true.
“Tackling illegal migration is one of our highest priorities and will in future be covered by its own directorate; while conflict prevention and resolution is more vital than ever to the department’s work, hundreds of staff in the UK and abroad are attempting to achieve peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.”
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