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

Women and children in Syria going to a refugee camp. The directorate provides advice and technical support to governments and civil society groups in trouble spots. Photograph: Achilleas Zavallis/The Guardian

The Foreign Office has been warned that a plan to axe its dedicated unit on emerging conflicts and refugee crises is a “real error” that “undermines UK security” as the department grapples with swingeing cuts.

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