Emma Batha asks: What happens if you're forced to move because your village disappears under rising sea levels caused by global warming? Does the world have a duty to help? Should there be an onus on countries with the largest carbon footprints to take in the people rendered homeless by climate change?
Environmental migrants have no international recognition or right to protection and very few people are thinking about them. See my earlier post April 11, 2008.
The answer is not to widen the scope of the 1951 Refugee Convention as the ratification process for a new protocol would be overwhelming and most countries would most likely not sign, which would result in a loss of protection.
Jean Lambert says "with environmental migration the world will be dealing with large groups of people who may never be able to return home because their land is under water or no longer inhabitable. The world needs to look at ways of creating resettlement programmes and opportunities, rather than focusing on conventional refugee protection."
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