The Major Gap in International Refugee Law

By Katie Rutter

While we are all familiar with climate change and the actions we are urged to take to combat this, in the United Kingdom we overlook the direct consequences of the climate crisis as they are felt more overtly in realities far removed from our own. We’re encouraged to use public transport, eat less meat, turn the lights off, consume less and so on and so forth. But, did you know that climate change is inextricable from the refugee crisis?

The impacts of climate change are not evenly spread across nations and economic groups. While many of us may associate refugees with less economically developed countries and warfare, the mounting pressures of the climate crisis are certain to fan the flames of the already convoluted refugee crisis and crowd in increased numbers of displaced people from a variety of economic backgrounds and nations.

What is a ‘climate refugee’?

A ‘refugee’ is defined as a person who has crossed an international border ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’ (1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees).

A climate change refugee is an individual who has been forcibly displaced by the effects of climate change such as rising sea levels or a natural disaster including forest fires or extreme droughts.

The problem is, the concept doesn’t properly exist in international law and within the parameters of the definition of a refugee as detailed above. Those displaced in the context of climate change or natural disasters are not currently protected by international law. António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, stated that ‘there is a protection gap in the international system that needs to be addressed’ and non-profit organisations such as Climate Refugees have been created to bring attention to this increasingly pressing human rights issue.

The problem is complex. The vast majority of those displaced as a result of climate change move within the borders of their country before resorting to crossing international borders and, therefore, it is difficult to write these individuals into international refugee legal framework.

Despite these complexities, however, we must take action to provide any protection we can. Western developed countries such as the UK have a responsibility to take an active position in the protection of climate refugees due to the way in which our actions have contributed to climate change.

Amali Tower from Climate Refugees labelled the problem a ‘justice issue that disproportionately impacts the most impoverished, marginalized and disenfranchised people […] who played very little role in creating the [climate change] problem’.

Developing countries, such as in South America, Asia and Africa, rely on climate and weather far more than the UK due to the heavy reliance on farming industries and subsistence farming. As a result, volatile climate patterns will heavily impinge on basic needs to live. Likewise, many low-lying countries such as Bangladesh will be worst hit by rising sea levels. These vulnerable communities will therefore have to migrate internally – placing increased pressure on tight resources in an already densely populated country.

In recent years, the term climate migrant or refugee has been used to describe those affected in developed countries such as by the bush fires in Australia or the wildfires in California. My question is: will it take the displacement of comparatively privileged communities to force us to write climate migration and emigration into the law?

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is calling for enhanced protection for refugees in the context of climate change and wants to close what Jose Riera, a UNHCR Senior Advisor, has labelled a ‘gaping legal hole’. How can we help? We need to collectively change our attitude to refugees and asylum seekers. It mustn’t take the displacement of people whose everyday realities resemble our own to wake us up to the realities of millions of people around the globe – especially those whose contributions to the climate crisis were minimal to nothing in the first place.