Climate Refugees Without Legal Recourse

The migrant crisis of 2015 left Europe reeling, but in the South Pacific, the next refugee emergency is already brewing. Rising sea levels are slowly but surely eating away at coastlines, and as the average salinity of previously agricultural land rises, the ability to produce crops is decreasing. Without immediate and drastic mitigation of climate change, a wave of climate change displaced persons – often described as “climate refugees” – is certain to be unleashed in the coming decades. Worst of all, the international legal system, as it currently exists, offers no recourse for those persons displaced from their homeland by climate change. 

Nations who will suffer the first impacts include Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands. Kiribati, the largest of the four, has a population of over 110,000 as of 2013, with a projected population of 208,600 by 2050. Therefore, lacking other technological solutions to sustain the rapidly shrinking liveable space on the island, or drastic climate change mitigation, the nation’s entire population will need to be relocated to a neighbouring country.

NEW ZEALAND PRESENTS A FAVOURABLE DESTINATION FOR PACIFIC CLIMATE REFUGEES

The developed South Pacific nation of New Zealand presents a favourable resettlement environment both culturally and geographically close to its Pacific neighbours. However, Kiribatans will still face the economic, social, and emotional pains associated with the loss of their own homeland and the difficulty of assimilation into a foreign nation. Furthermore, New Zealand has a population of 4.8 million, with population projections for 2050 between 5 and 7 million. At this population size, the absorption of over 200,000 migrants is not a simple feat, no matter the cultural and geographical proximity. As of July of 2020, New Zealand will accept just 1500 refugees per year. The challenge to assimilate climate-displaced persons from Kiribati and other Pacific nations will be enormous.

THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL DISPENSATION IS NOT EQUIPPED TO ASSIST CLIMATE REFUGEES

Though New Zealand has expressed some willingness to welcome displaced neighbours from the Pacific, they have no legal obligation to do so, nor do other Pacific countries. The international legal system, developed during the mid-20th century period of low climate-change awareness, has little to no recourse for victims of climate change. Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is defined as “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” Persons displaced from their country by climate change are not at this stage accepted under this definition of refugees, giving them no asylum status under international law. 

Recent legal precedent suggests an unwillingness to adapt. In the 2015 case of Teitiota v Chief Executive of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the New Zealand Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a Kiribati national, Mr Ioane Teitiota, who applied for asylum as a “climate refugee” under the 1951 Refugee Convention, thus creating a precedent in New Zealand law.[1] As a consequence, the protection of climate refugees remains entirely a matter of political will in New Zealand, without legal recourse, or any established processes to begin a large-scale repatriation of those affected. 

MODERN SOCIETY IS NOT PREPARED FOR MIGRANT CRISES

Europe, and the world, was strikingly unprepared for the current migrant crisis. To this day, thousands of Syrian asylum seekers remain stranded in refugee camps, under degrading and unacceptable conditions. But for those whose Pacific homelands are shrinking into nothing, even the ability to seek asylum as a refugee is impossible. Our failure to repatriate and integrate the refugees of the current decade, and the striking lack of international legal support for climate victims, must beg the question: in the 21st century, as we face the unprecedented challenge of climate change, will our 20th century system of human rights prove woefully inadequate? 

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Legal citations

[1]  Teitiota v Chief Executive of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment [2013] NZHC 3125. 

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Brontë will graduate in May 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Otago. Born and raised in New Zealand and now living in Paris, she is an environmentalist passionate about mitigation of climate change and protection of biodiversity.

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