diff --git a/libeoaconvert.py b/libeoaconvert.py
index b85b7bd..90b2658 100644
--- a/libeoaconvert.py
+++ b/libeoaconvert.py
@@ -243,6 +243,9 @@ def fix_bib_entries(div_snippet):
 def debug_xml_here(xml_tree, xml_filename):
     """Dump current state of an XML tree into a file for inspection"""
 
+    if not os.path.exists("debug"):
+        os.makedirs(os.path.expanduser("debug"))
+
     xml_path = "%s/debug/debug_%s.xml" % (os.getcwd(), xml_filename)
 
     if isinstance(xml_tree, etree._ElementTree):