Environmental Refugees and the Definitions of Justice

By Wade Norris, Co-Founder of PRAER

When will the time come that climate change talks will start considering human rights over business rights?

There is a growing group of people in our world who are in a legal limbo — environmental refugees. Even though there are hundreds to thousands currently being displaced by climate change, they do not have a defined status as a group, hence they are not officially "refugees."

Yet, according to current predictions by Oxfam International, by 2050 there will be 75 million people displaced due to climate change. Other models are predicting up to 250 million people.

Morally, we must look at who is responsible for the millions who will lose their homes and way of life and find solutions.

According to the definition by UN High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), a refugee is someone either inside or outside their national borders fleeing persecution due to their affiliation with their social group — ethic, religious, political, etc.

But a person whose island is swallowed up by a rising sea has no rights under refugee law, in fact, they are considered "migrants," meaning they are "voluntarily" leaving their country.

A great example is the eruption of Soufriere Hills Volcano in Plymouth, Montserrat, in the 1990's and continuing today.

The United States and the UK issued temporary humanitarian visas for people to leave the island under the legal provision of "non-refoulement." (This is also the provision that calls on governments not to return a person to a country where they may be tortured or killed.) However, as the eruptions continued, the U.S. revoked the temporary visas and issued a statement saying that because the volcano was an "ongoing situation" and "no longer temporary", that they were no longer eligible to stay in the U.S. under the temporary humanitarian visas. The United Kingdom has done the same.

In both countries, many of those displaced by the volcano are simply overstaying their visas and trying to avoid deportation. Professors Andy Pittman, Jane McAdam and Anna Samson of the University of New South Wales explain the issue in this video.

Solution 1: The United Nations

The first choice would be to get the United Nations to expand the charter of who is covered under the current definition of a refugee.

Right now, perhaps the best person to speak to the issue is President Mohamed Nasheed of the island nation of Maldives. The Maldives is home to 350,000 people, all living at 8 feet above sea level. With current models showing a 6 to 9 foot rise by 2100, Nasheed has gone on a speaking tour around the world and before the UN to argue for curbing emissions and for money for relocation.

Next week, he will be holding a government cabinet meeting underwater to emphasize the threat of sea level rise due to Climate Change.

Facing a similar global warming threat, Ursula Rakova of the Carterets has formed a non-profit called Tulele Peisa which means "Sailing the Waves on Our Own" and seeks to empower the Carteret islanders to raise money for relocation.

I have hope that there will be enough momentum to get something legal status established this year at Copenhagen.

Right now there are already staggering numbers of Refugees that need help: