Have you ever heard of Ioane Teitiota?
A man from Kiribati, an island nation in the South Pacific that is slowly sinking due to rising sea levels. A man who fought for years for asylum in New Zealand. In 2013, his application was finally rejected. Because climate refugees have no rights.
The 21st century could become an age of forced migration. Wars, natural disasters and poverty have always driven people to flee, forcing them to leave their homes. If the forecasts of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) are to be believed, however, migration will increase massively due to a new cause, reaching unprecedented levels. Climate change could force 200 million people to migrate every year by 2050 (source: EU Infothek).
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council and the International Displacement Monitoring Center, extreme weather events have already destroyed the homes of more than 19.3 million people in 2014. Every year, an average of 26.4 million people are already displaced from their homes due to extreme climates- that's one person per second (source: Bread for the World). Estimates of 50 to even 350 million refugees for the year 2050 seem realistic (source: FAZ).
Are Syrian refugees really climate refugees?
Between 2006 and 2011, 60% of Syria's land area was affected by one of the most severe droughts of modern times. A lack of rain for 5 years and poor water management led to crop failures for 75% of all farmers. They were forced to migrate to the cities, which were already unsafe and unstable. When the rains finally returned, it was already too late, resulting in uprisings and war.
Since the 1970s, there has been an increase in extreme weather events in Syria, which scientists attribute to climate change (source: Global Risks Report 2014). 4.9 million people have emigrated from Syria, making it the country with the most refugees worldwide. In addition, there are 6.6 million Syrians who have been displaced within their own country (source: UN Refugee Agency).
The crux of climate refugees
While Syrians cannot be clearly defined as climate refugees, there are many people who are not, such as the family of Ioane Teitiota mentioned above. The problem, however, is that despite everything, the sinking of his country is not a reason for asylum.
But why do climate refugees have no rights? Is it not understandable that people want to escape hunger and survive?
The rights of refugees are set out in the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Article 1 deals with which groups of people are to be granted the right to asylum and are therefore considered Convention refugees. The following reasons for flight are recognized: Persecution on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
Migration due to natural disasters and environmental changes is therefore completely out of the question! A situation that is completely outdated, considering that more than 25 million people are apparently already forced to leave their homes every year due to climate change. It is also unfair that it is mainly countries that are affected by climate change that have not caused it themselves. The industrialized countries, with their high consumption of resources, are also the least affected by global climate change.
Sigeo Alesana- first recognized climate refugee
But there is hope. In 2014, New Zealand granted a family from Tuvalu the right to stay, taking climate change into account as a threat. Like Kiribati, the Pacific island state of Tuvalu is sinking into the sea.
Ioane Teitiota from Kiribati had to hear from Judge John Priestley in 2013: "Someone seeking a better life by escaping the perceived consequences of climate change is not a person (...) to whom the Convention applies", a year later the family from Tuvalu is allowed to stay in New Zealand (source: ORF).
Another ray of hope
Together with Norway, Switzerland launched the Nansen Initiative in 2012, which aims to improve the protection of people who flee abroad due to natural disasters. The protection agenda was finalized in October 2015 and is supported by 109 countries. It lists measures such as disaster risk reduction, adaptation to climate change and humanitarian action (source: EDA.admin.ch). A follow-up mechanism, the Platform on Disaster Displacement, was created to implement the projects.
Protecting climate refugees is an important step, but a much more important one would be to get global warming under control so that people are not forced to flee in the first place. Because as the song by John Howard Payne and Sir Henry Bishop so beautifully puts it: "There's no place like home"!
