ISSUE 40: NOVEMBER 2005-FEBRUARY 2006
network of research and training centres/programmes
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Urgent support needed for environmental refugees
Amid predictions that by 2010 the world will need to cope with as many as 50 million people escaping the effects of creeping environmental deterioration, UN University experts say the international community urgently needs to define, recognize and extend support to this new category of refugee.
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Desertification
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In a statement to mark the UN Day for Disaster Reduction (October 12), UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) says such problems as sea level rise, expanding deserts and catastrophic weather-induced flooding have already contributed to large permanent migrations and could eventually displace hundreds of millions.
Unlike victims of political upheaval or violence, however, who have access through governments and international organizations to such assistance as financial grants, food, tools, shelter, schools and clinics, “environmental refugees” are not yet recognized in world conventions. Red Cross research shows more people are now displaced by environmental disasters than war.
"There are well-founded fears that the number of people fleeing untenable environmental conditions may grow exponentially as the world experiences the effects of climate change and other phenomena," says UNU-EHS Director Janos Bogardi. "This new category of refugee needs to find a place in international agreements. We need to better anticipate support requirements, similar to those of people fleeing other unviable situations.”
Victims of sudden and highly-publicized catastrophes like the 2004 Asian tsunami or the recent US Gulf Coast hurricanes benefit from the mobilization of private and public sector generosity and humanitarian relief. Countless millions of others around the world, however, are uprooted by gradual environmental change, receive comparatively little support to cope and adapt and are not recognized as refugees with the benefits that bestows.
"This is a highly complex issue, with global organizations already overwhelmed by the demands of conventionally-recognized refugees, as originally defined in 1951," says UNU Rector Hans van Ginkel. "We should prepare now, however, to define, accept and accommodate this new breed of refugee within international frameworks."
© 2006 United Nations University