Climate refugees

Migration due to climate change will be an issue that better placed nations will have to deal with in the coming years. Today people are fleeing their home country due to poverty, strife and persecution. Tomorrow people will be forced to migrate because rising waters and heatwaves have ruined their land (“Biden considers protection for climate change migrants,” April 23, Gulf Today).

In fact, inconsistent weather is already one of the leading causes of forced displacement globally. Climate change is causing environmental calamities and driving migration, which will only worsen in the coming decade. Generally people relocate internally, moving from rural to urban areas in cases of natural disasters, but even that may not be an option as the circumstances aggravates.

A World Meteorological Organization reports showed 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.

President Biden is moving in the right direction by looking at ways on how to support such migrants, considering that people displaced due to climate change have no recourse to migration protection. People fleeing due to environmental disasters are not considered refugees under international law. The Biden administration needs to act fast.

Joyce D

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