COVID–19 Is a Test for Climate Migration and the World Is Failing
Climate change, while gradual, will eventually reach the point of no return, leading to vast displacement, and governments forced to manage on the fly, will flounder, evidenced by the current Covid-19 response. Governments have faced innumerable challenges in restricting movements to curtail the spread of the virus, some even allegedly denying migrants access to food while passing through. What all this shows us is the capacity of countries to weather unexpected crises, and the looming threat of climate displacement is one more they seem woefully unprepared to address. Chief among concerns are the legal ones, and the crucial need for global leaders to create a binding legal framework that addresses the legal void climate displaced people may face. As Covid-19 has demonstrated, economic, housing and logistical realities of large population movements can prove equally overwhelming and this crisis has made clear that the time has come for regional and international cooperation to address climate displacement. (The Diplomat)
On the Run From Disaster: “Climate Refugees” Face a Devastating Mental Health Toll
It’s Earth Day 2020 and we at Climate Refugees, through our founder Amali Tower, are honored to have participated in this great piece from Teen Vogue that highlights the complexities of climate displacement, where we help articulate the legal challenges, policy gaps and humanitarian realities that many face today and threaten so many more in the future. All month, Teen Vogue will be featuring a series on how climate change impacts mental health. Here’s a sampling of our contribution and what you can expect from the piece:
““Migrant” implies choice, Tower says, which does not apply to many young people who are on the move as a result of the unliveable climate change-related conditions or at the will of their caretakers.
Further complicating the terms of definition are the nexus dynamics of weather disasters and humanitarian crises. There is a relationship between climate and resource changes, and political, cultural and economic instability
“It's so important that we understand what distinctions are important and labels are important and terminologies are important, but not to the detriment of our ability to protect people,” Tower says. In her experience working with young displaced people around the world, all reasons for their journey present “the same heartbreak.”
Hers and other organizations, as well as countries and local governments, are pushing for climate change-related displacement to be recognized under human rights law, but the processes necessary to make significant changes to international and domestic policy move slowly, and are convoluted by politics.” (Teen Vogue)
‘Most Of The Men Are Your Enemies': One Woman's Crusade in Somalia
Ibado Mohammed Abdulle is a counsellor, friend and campaigner for women who have been made refugees in their own country by the impact of the climate crisis. Climate change is driving displacement since 2016 when drought drove thousands of families to displacement camps, and with it, drove up the rates of rape, sexual violence and intimate partner violence when women became the family breadwinners and when they migrated to camps near crowded urban centers. Abdulle tries hard to document the crisis in an attempt to recruit help, and while updated statistics are lacking, the World Bank records at least 25 percent of Somali women have experienced gender-based violence exacerbated by conflict and displacement due to the climate emergency. (The Guardian)
Analysis
The Guardian refers to Abdulle and Somalia’s many displaced by the climate emergency as ‘climate refugees.’ Although we too use this term to highlight the protection needs constant between internally displaced, refugee and cross-border climate displaced populations, to be accurate, Somalis internally displaced within Somalia’s territorial borders for reasons of drought or conflict are internally displaced persons and ultimate responsibility for protection lies with the Somali Government.