The UK cannot afford to be caught off guard by another humanitarian crisis

Even after a long list of wars and conflicts, the UK government has still not developed a coherent approach to how it offers sanctuary in emergency situations when humanitarian crises arise, writes Labour peer Alf Dubs

Events in the Middle East are shocking, heartbreaking and, I fear, escalating (AFP/Getty)

The experiences of recent years have shown us that, at intervals, the world witnesses terrible events such as wars and persecution that prompt civilians to flee for safety – Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea and Ukraine are just some examples.

Although the overwhelming number of displaced people are given sanctuary in neighbouring countries, each crisis has shown the United Kingdom to be ill prepared to deal with the people who inevitably seek safety elsewhere. Consequently, we’ve been forced to improvise emergency arrangements to deal with the humanitarian consequences as and when they arise.

In Afghanistan, the UK government was caught off guard, with disastrous humanitarian consequences. When war exploded in Ukraine, the Home Office was left with the task of building a visa scheme from scratch, at speed. In both cases, mistakes were made.