Surge of climate migrants prompts rethink of refugee laws

• Date: 24 April 2021
• Published date: 24 April 2021
• Author: Julie Watson
• Publication title: Hawkes Bay Today

While New Zealand’s courts didn’t dispute high tides pose a risk to Kiribati, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, refugee laws didn’t address the danger so the government deported them.

No nation offers asylum or other legal protections to people displaced specifically because of climate change. US President Joe Biden’s administration is studying the idea, and climate migration is expected to be discussed at his first climate summit today.

Yesterday, Democratic Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts planed to reintroduce legislation to address the lack of protections for those who don’t fit the narrow definition of “refugees” under international law. It failed in 2019.

The idea still faces monumental challenges, including how to define a climate refugee when natural disasters, drought and violence are often intertwined in regions people are fleeing.

If the US defined a climate refugee, it could mark a major shift in global refugee policy. Biden has ordered national security adviser Jake Sullivan to see how to identify and resettle people displaced directly or indirectly by climate change. A report is due in August.

“Our hope is the US can take strong action that will produce a domino effect on other nations,” said Krish Vignarajah, head of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

The United Nations says there may be as many as 200 million climate-displaced people worldwide by 2050.

A World Meteorological Organisation report released on Tuesday shows it’s already happening, with an average of 23 million climate refugees a year since 2010 and nearly 10 million recorded in the first six months of last year, especially in Asia and East Africa. Most moved within their own country.

The 1951 Convention on Refugees defines “refugee” as a person who has crossed an international border “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”.

Some argue that’s outdated, but few expect changes to the international accord to account for those fleeing rising sea levels, drought or other effects of climate change.

The US may define the displaced as climate migrants instead of refugees and offer them humanitarian visas or other protections.

Biden ordered the idea to be studied after a landmark ruling last year from the UN Human Rights Committee on a complaint Teitiota filed against New Zealand.

Teitiota argued his 2015 deportation violated his right to life. He said...