Climate refugees, unprotected forced IDPs

Text by: Romain Philips Follow

While some studies predict 150 to 250 million climate refugees by 2050, no international status exists to frame and protect these migrations, recalls a report published this Saturday, June 20, on the occasion of World Refugee Day .

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In 2019, nearly 25 million people were displaced within their country due to natural disasters and climate change. On the occasion of World Refugee Day, this Saturday, June 20, 2020, the association Refugees-Cosi association, with the help of many experts, released its annual report on asylum and the plight of climate refugees, whose protection by international law remains very vague.

Of tens of millions of people may be affected by forced migration related to climate change in the coming years. But in certain regions of the world, such as Oceania or Asia , "  this is not a future problem, it is a current problem  ", recalls Bérangere Taxil. "  Bangladesh , China, India and the Philippines each recorded more than 4 million trips,  " said specialist François Gemenne in the report, also citing the case of West African and East, likely to be victims of unrest strongly impacting agriculture, essential sector in these countries.

"  The first climate refugee  "

In Oceania, it is particularly on the Kiribati or Tuvalu archipelago that global warming and rising sea levels are worrying. The inhabitants of these archipelagos threatened by the rising waters are more and more numerous to want to take refuge, inter alia, in New Zealand. It is, moreover, the New Zealand justice, then the Court of Human Rights of the United Nations, which made the first case law on the subject of climate displaced persons, during the Teitiota case.

Ioane Teitiota is a 43-year-old father from Kiribati who hoped to become "  the first climate refugee  ". In 2015, he was expelled from New Zealand after using all legal remedies. He had been claiming refugee status in New Zealand for four years on the grounds that he, his wife and their three children were in mortal danger in Kiribati.

The Kiribati archipelago is made up of around thirty coral atolls where 32 out of 33 islands barely exceed ocean level (their maximum altitude is less than 12 meters). Whole areas are in fact regularly submerged there. He therefore feared that he could no longer live on this island threatened by the erosion of its shores and the infiltration of salt water into its fresh water reserves.

In his verdict, the New Zealand justice system found that he did not meet the criteria for granting refugee status, which must be persecuted in his native country. This widely publicized case was then brought before the UN Human Rights Court which, in January 2020, considered that his expulsion was legal. The UN organization, however, recognized the humanitarian dimension of its request. "  A historic decision  " , according to Amnesty International which welcomed that for the first time, global warming is taken into account as a "  serious threat  " to the right to life.

Towards a single international treaty on the protection of climate refugees?

A step towards stronger recognition of climate refugees, but for all that, this jurisprudence remains impracticable because "  legally, the right of asylum is improper for climate displaced persons  ", confirms the professor, thus denying the term "  clumsy  " of climate refugees. “  None of the five grounds set out exhaustively by the 1951 Geneva Convention can protect a person fleeing his environment. It is neither racial, religious, national, nor a political opinion, and environmental displaced people do not form a social group distinct from the rest of the population,  ”the report said.

In other words, there is no universal text today that brings together the rights of climate-displaced people. Do we therefore need a single, binding international treaty to integrate the protection of climate refugees into law? This could be “  interesting in order to centralize processes  ” and for States to integrate these measures into their common law, but the relevance of this treaty would be “  doubtful  ” and the time of elaboration too long for the current emergency, details Bérangère Taxil , believing that "  everything already exists in international law  ". However, the non-binding nature of the existing elements means that States "  make commitments but do not put them into practice  ", she regrets.

Two instruments provide the current context: the Agenda for the protection of internally displaced persons in the context of disasters and climate change as well as the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration adopted in 2018 by the UN (United Nations Organization). These texts suggest "  to anticipate and manage internal displacements  " for the countries of origin of the migrations and the host countries themselves, "  are invited to admit the displaced persons (by issuing visas or suspending the visa requirement) and not to deport them to an environmentally dangerous destination  ”.

"  A global problem with regionalized solutions  "

"  We must join dialogues on a universal scale because global warming is a global problem with regionalized solutions  ", add the experts. If the common responsibility of states in global warming has been recognized since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, the response to forced displacement by global warming must be between neighboring countries. "  The situation of Kiribati is probably not the same as in Texas, which also has essential climate problems, so the answer given cannot be similar,  " illustrates the professor of international law.

New Zealand and the states with which it cooperates, which set an example on the issue given the immediacy of the climate threat hanging over them, have opted for integration through work. The New Zealand authorities have refused to create a visa for climate refugees but are proposing bilateral solutions such as "  a sustainable work visa  " for residents wishing to join the country. Thus, climate refugees have an integration into a culture close to their own, thus favoring their reintegration into a new environment.

These agreements, put in place by a few countries whose urgency is no longer in doubt, are struggling to see the light of day in other regions which are not directly affected by the consequences of global warming. However, “  it is fallacious to present migration and displacement linked to climate change as a future risk. This is already a reality, which requires the examination of researchers, the attention of the media and political responses  , ”warned François Gemenne.

Today, the definition of climate migration as the next migration crisis pushes countries more "  to further strengthen the surveillance of their borders and to tighten asylum and immigration policies  ", rather than to opt for it. anticipation and the increased fight against global warming, ignoring the international solidarity that has been taken in the fight against global warming. A paradoxical situation given that the first victims of this warming are far from being the most polluting States.

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