'Climate refugees': legal trouble!

The United Nations said in 2008, 38 million people worldwide migrated due to natural disasters.

By 2050, this number will increase to 250 million. However, the question is where do they go?

A roadside alms boy after an earthquake in the village of Limo Koto Timur in West Sumatra province, Indonesia - Photo: Reuters

Charles Ehrhart, climate change coordinator of the Non-Governmental Organization Care, said the legal framework does not allow consideration of cases of migration across the national territory caused by climate change.

Voluntary or compulsory migration?

"Maldives has a history of over 2,000 years and we don't want to trade our paradise for a climate refugee camp."

President Mohamed Nasheed of the archipelago of 1,192 islets announced during the climate change summit held in New Delhi, India on October 23.

(Reuters)

From the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) all are aware of this legal loophole. But this record is facing the complexity of this phenomenon and the fear of mass migration. Anne-Marie Linde, head of the UN Humanitarian Coordination Office (OCHA), said the gap here relates to climate victims when crossing national borders.

'Most of these migrants still have to stay in their territory and cannot apply for refugee status,' said Sybella Wilkes, a HCR spokesman. Although there are occasional interventions in an emergency when there is an environmental disaster, it still rejects the term 'climate refugee' for fear of cracking the fragile facility of the 1951 Geneva Convention. about refugees.

Currently the definition of refugees is so strict that it is difficult to add a legal definition to climate immigrants. The responsibility to care for them in the "key principles" adopted by the United Nations in 1998 is not mandatory.

Therefore, one of OCHA's activities is to encourage countries to incorporate these principles into their laws.

But things are not so simple. In addition to unexpected disasters, global warming climate is causing environmental degradation and widespread living conditions. 'One of the important issues is to identify them to go away voluntarily to find a better life, or to be forced to forfeit all means of survival,' said Linde.

According to Mr. Ehrhart, it is necessary to redefine the different types of levels, because both of the above cases are not enough to lead to the same rights. Mr. Koko Warner, head of the United Nations University's Department of Environmental Migration - a UN and Unesco research and training facility located in Bonn (Germany) - agrees this idea when he says the new definition will help better coordinate humanitarian relief, participants, strategies for prevention and adaptation, risk management and even funding.

Behind there is a requirement for a climate refugee status that is also the responsibility of rich countries to support victims. Countries like the Maldives and Bangladesh demand to bring the issue of forced migration into discussion to reach a treaty at the upcoming Copenhagen conference in December.

Help adapt to avoid migration

However, as Philippe Chauzy, an IOM spokesman, points out: 'Many countries are maintaining ambiguity in the law so they don't have to accept immigrants of this type.' It was this organization that proposed a very open definition of environmental migrants. But those who oppose this rule also argue: it is difficult to prove the responsibility of climate change. That's not to mention part of the disaster has nothing to do with immigrants.

However, according to Warner, the problem is the need to find a solution and not find the culprit. According to him, rich countries need to help poor countries adapt to climate change and that is the best way to avoid climate migration and emergency humanitarian aid.