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The UK has no plan to address the global refugee “crisis”, as Labour pours efforts into tackling the record numbers of small boat crossings instead of the root causes of migration, MPs have warned.
The International Development Committee said the Foreign Office was “failing” to implement programs that mitigate the causes of displacement, while instead focusing on short-term measures against migration.
Committee members accused the government of having “no clear plan to tackle the record high number of refugees and displaced people fleeing their homes”.
It comes as illegal migration has soared under Labour, with more than 50,000 people crossing the Channel since July 2024.
Meanwhile, the report found that global displacement is at a “crisis level”, jumping by 187 per cent since 2012; with 123 million people forcibly displaced from their homes around the world.
Committee chair Sarah Champion warned that the government must “get a grip” and address the factors behind migration, “before this crisis spins entirely out of control.”
“It pains me that we are spending taxpayers’ money dealing with the outcomes of people fleeing their homes, rather than tackling the causes head-on: conflict, climate and population growth,” said Ms Champion in the scathing report.
“We urgently need a real plan to address migration, not a sticking plaster,” she added.
While the government has promised a crackdown on migration, it simultaneously slashed the UK’s withering aid budget by over a third earlier this year, leaving essential programs scrambling for funding.
“It is hard to imagine that [aid cuts] will not impact migration flows around the world,” Gideon Rabinowitz, policy director at Bond, told the committee.
Attempts to “smash the gangs” behind the small boat crossings have not convinced the public, and after Yvette Cooper was moved from the Home Office to lead the Foreign Office, the government’s latest approach to tackling migration has yet to be proven.
New foreign secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she will do “whatever it takes” to stop small boat crossings, but while the government pours millions of pounds into increasing enforcement, it has reduced global aid spending for countries that need it most.
“We cannot start to build a humane asylum system without first understanding why people – such as those who make Channel crossings – are forced to flee their homes,” Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of charity Refugee Action, told The Independent.
As the UK’s aid budget was slashed from 0.5 per cent of gross national income to just 0.3 per cent, MPs warned that the Foreign Office has “failed to learn the lessons of previous cuts”.
The committee suggested that previous cuts meant that conflict in Sudan has been left “unchallenged”, leading to a refugee crisis which has left 16 million people internally displaced, and 4 million fleeing the country.
Cuts to the Integrated Security Fund (UKISF), which focuses resources on the highest national security issues, including programs to address illegal migration, are a key concern for the committee, warning that it resulted in “unpredictable ramifications for the UK both at home and abroad”.
Since January alone, over 30,000 people have come to the UK in small boats, the highest level on record for September.
The vast majority (95 per cent) of people who come this way claim asylum in the UK, seeking refugee status. This makes up around a third of all asylum claims, according to the Migration Observatory.
Those with refugee status are unable to live safely in their own country because they fear persecution, for reasons such as race, religion, political opinion or gender.
“Most displaced people are fleeing war, persecution, climate change and poverty and are from countries deeply affected by British or European colonialism and foreign policy,” added Mr Hilton.
Although there is no official figure, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates there are around 515,000 refugees living in the UK, with a record 108,000 asylum applications made last year alone.
Sir Keir Starmer has repeatedly promised to “smash the gangs” and recently warned he would “not reward illegal entry”.
But without tackling the root causes of those who flee their countries, the UK may not be successful in solving its migration crisis, the committee said.
It comes as the government has just closed another legal route for migration by pausing the refugee family pathway, which allows refugees to apply to bring family members to the UK.
MPs have now accused the Foreign Office of “not sufficiently considering the scale of this challenge”, warning that there is no “overarching strategy” on global displacement.
“It is unclear how the government will secure progress towards its missions in the light of significantly reduced funding for the kinds of development programming that mitigate the drivers of displacement,” reads the report.
This lack of strategy means that spending on displacement has “reduced value for money”, the report found.
In particular, the UK’s cuts to global aid are reducing programs on poverty prevention and other areas, which presents “wasted opportunities to assist displaced people” who might then seek to move further afield.
“Being forced to flee your home is a fate that few of us can imagine; yet levels of global displacement are higher than they have been for decades,” added committee chair Ms Champion.
“This is a crisis of vast proportions. Yet our report makes clear that the UK has no overall plan to tackle the problem.”
The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
