The 'climate refugee': a non-existent issue (yet).
Forest fires in Greece, Algeria and Spain, floods in Limburg, parts of Belgium and Germany and a heat wave of almost 50 ˚C in Canada and Italy: the effects of climate change are coming closer to home. While countries are gradually stepping up for it Paris agreement However, 'climate refugees' as a result of these types of natural disasters are ignored in international politics.
The past month was a turbulent period in terms of climate reports from UN organizations. First of all, it has the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). report of August 9, 2021 confirmed that humans have caused climate change. According to the IPCC, this has caused heat waves, droughts and tropical cyclones in recent decades. The IPCC states that countries must take greater steps to ensure that the global average temperature does not rise more than 1.5 ˚C or 2 ˚C, as agreed in the Paris Agreement. If this does not happen, according to the IPCC, there will be more frequent and severe heat waves, heavy precipitation, drought and reduction of ice in the Arctic sea. Unicef, the UN children's rights organization, then announced on August 20, 2021 the first comprehensive report on climate risks for children states that almost every child in the world is at risk from the effects of climate change. According to UNICEF, one billion children (about half of all children in the world) in 33 countries are at extreme risk from the climate crisis.
Although every country is already feeling these effects of climate change, developing countries are being hit disproportionately hard. The UNICEF report confirms this: many European countries, Canada and Australia are at low risk, while many African countries, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are at very high risk. Conflict areas, poor countries and countries with many internally displaced people, according to the UN refugee organization UNHCR, often unable to repair the damage caused by natural disasters. Climate change worsens in addition, there are also the existing political or socio-economic factors that cause people to flee.
A report from the UNHCR shows that twice as many people have fled climate-related disasters in the past decade as have fled conflict and violence. This amounts to 21.5 million displaced persons per year. People not only flee within the borders of their own country, but also seek refuge in other countries. For example, last November there was one after two major hurricanes huge flow of displaced people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who fled to Mexico and America. It is expected that the number of climate refugees will increase sharply if global warming is not stopped.
Not recognized as a refugee
However, from an international law perspective, climate refugees fall within a gap in the law. It UN Refugee Convention from 1951 does not mention climate as one of the grounds on which people can claim refugee status and therefore enjoy protection. The UNHCR does not recognize the term 'climate refugee'. Only if the effects of climate change go hand in hand with armed conflict and violence can people claim the benefits refugee status. The UN Human Rights Committee ruled in 2016 in the lawsuit filed by Ioane Teitiota – a resident of the rapidly disappearing country of Kiribati – that his rejection of asylum in New Zealand was lawful. Although there were conflicts in his home country due to land scarcity, the Committee did not consider it proven that his life was in immediate danger. Yet the Human Rights Committee also noted in that case that countries must take into account human rights violations due to the climate crisis in the future.
The attitude of the Dutch government has so far been at odds with this last comment. In 2020, State Secretary for Justice and Security Ankie Broekers-Knol stated in response to the Human Rights Committee's lawsuit that climate refugees have no right to asylum and that the Netherlands is involved in international politics. won't make it hard to change that. Many Western countries prefer to withdraw their hands from this issue and hide behind the limited definition of a refugee to prevent a large influx of refugees in the future.
Placing an issue on the agenda
Yet the issue of climate refugees must definitely be put on the political agenda. Whether people want it or not, the Netherlands will also have to deal with this. Expanding the refugee definition may indeed not be an option, but it should at least be looked at by qualified lawyers and policymakers. Conflicts and refugees as a result of climate change in the coming decades are unavoidable. Reason enough to exchange that passive attitude for a cooperative attitude and to provide a safety net for climate refugees.
