As Somalia teeters on the edge of a famine that could cause a rate of child death not seen in half a century, a new project has been launched to provide emergency relief to those displaced by the crisis.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced on 18 October that a new US$20 million project had launched to tackle the pressing needs of 71,000 displaced and vulnerable people affected by the historic drought.
Over a million people have been displaced in Somalia since January 2021, which marked the start of a drought now stretching across four failed rainy seasons. A failed fifth rainy season is thought to be likely, as is a rare formal declaration of famine. The crisis has been driven by global warming.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that half a million children are at risk of dying from malnutrition. “Without greater action and investment, we are facing the death of children on a scale not seen in half a century,” said spokesperson James Elder.
The IOM is partnering with the World Bank and the Somalian government on the new project, which will provide emergency relief and enhance abilities to recover and adapt through long-term housing solutions and infrastructure development.
“The project comes at a critical time as the most severe drought in four decades pushes millions of people further into poverty, starvation and displacement, with thousands at risk of eviction,” said Ewa Naqvi, IOM deputy chief of mission in Somalia.
Many Somalis that have left rural areas are living in informal settlements on the outskirts of cities where they face “fear and intimidation,” says the IOM, with a high risk of forced evictions.
Ismail Abdirahman Sheikh Bashir of Somalia’s Ministry of Public Works, Reconstruction and Housing said the project would “urgently address the water, sanitation, shelter, health and nutritional needs of drought-affected families.”
On Sunday, September 18th, Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico. The island’s southwestern region was devastated by 140kmh (85mph) winds, with the rest experiencing severe flooding. Flash floods and torrential rain continued through Monday 19th, with as much as 30 inches of rain in some areas.
Approximately 3 million people were without power in the days following. One week after the storm, about half of the electrical consumers on the island were still without power. Two weeks after, about 100,000 electrical customers were still without power. As of Wednesday, October 12th, nearly a month later, there are still up to 40,000 people without power. In the southwest city of Cabo Rojo, people are still unsure when they will have power back in their homes.
Frustrations are high amongst the residents with no power, a situation some Puerto Ricans experienced not long ago. Hurricane Maria in 2017 left parts of the island in the dark for a year, weakened the power grid, and some regions are still not fully recovered from the damage from 5 years ago. Another prolonged blackout is something most people do not have the time, energy, or resources to contend with. There has been some critical backlash against Puerto Rico’s governor, Pedro R. Pierluisi, and US-Canadian conglomerate LUMA Energy, who took over power transmission on the island in June 2021. Energy prices have soared in the past year, almost doubling, and is said to be one of the highest of any US territory or state.
Aside from the immediate dangers of natural disasters, the long-term economic, social and political impacts pose a mounting threat. The 2017 hurricane showed that many Puerto Ricans struggled to recover immediately after an extreme weather event. If, as is predicted, these weather events become more common, the time for Puerto Ricans to re-establish following a storm will diminish. As these events begin to compound, there will be little choice but for residents to evacuate with less and less preparation. This cycle of an underprepared disaster response paired with a severe storm may well be underway, with the only hopes of long-term sustainability resting in comprehensive and preventative action by/for Puerto Ricans.
I was very excited when the email arrived in my inbox last May informing me that I had been accepted to the first-ever International School on Climate Migration (ISCM), hosted by Earth Refuge and the Department of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. As a sociocultural anthropologist, I hoped to learn more about ways to investigate climate migration using ethnography in rural and peri-urban areas of Mexico. Although I had been studying migration from Central Mexico to the US for many years, changing environmental conditions and international reports about “climate refugees” piqued my curiosity about how environmental factors shaped migratory flows.
The ISCM brought together experts addressing climate migration from different angles, (especially in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia) and perspectives, such as those of community leaders, activists, peacekeepers, lawyers, development specialists, and academics. Stretched across multiple time zones and connected through Zoom, over the course of five weeks, they shared on-the-ground experiences working with climate migrants and diplomatic, legal, and community efforts to address climate migration. The experiences of those most vulnerable to changing environmental conditions, as well as the historical processes and structural factors that created their vulnerability, often took center stage in our discussions. The ISCM successfully brought to life the complexity of this issue and some of the ways people are imagining better futures. Here are my five takeaways from the ISCM.
1. It’s difficult to distinguish climate migrants from other people on the move
Which factors determine when people move, how they move, who they move with, and where they go? Since the 19th century, researchers have studied the many drivers of migration. The voluminous research on migration theory has mapped out how economic, social, cultural, and political factors shape mobility in different times and places. There is a consensus among 21st century researchers that migration will not be caused by environmental factors alone. Rather, climate and environmental change will act as “threat multipliers” that will exert further pressure on the economic, social, cultural, and political factors which have always been important in shaping mobility. Even in the case of abrupt, sudden changes (for example, flooding caused by stronger and more frequent hurricanes), previous circumstances and underlying conditions shape who can leave, where they can go, and which resources they have access to.
2. Some people are more impacted by climate change and mobility than others through ongoing legacies of colonialism
Some communities and social groups are already suffering, and some will suffer to an even greater degree, from more frequent heatwaves and drought, rising sea levels, and more frequent and intense storms and flooding. Women and girls, indigenous peoples, more economically vulnerable people, racialized communities, and migrants are more vulnerable to environmental change because of ongoing legacies of colonialism. Colonialism subjugated non-Europeans – dispossessing them of land and other material resources, as well as their autonomy and independence. These processes of dispossession continue in the present, both through ongoing, and often violent, appropriation of resources and the failure to recognize and respect the rights of marginalized groups. Furthermore, many so-called solutions to environmental and social change—designed without the input of indigenous groups and those who are economically vulnerable— exacerbate the existing challenges which communities are facing in trying to mitigate and adapt to changing conditions. It is paramount to account for the legacies of colonialism in our understanding of climate-induced displacement, as well as in the programs and policies now being developed and implemented to address it.
3. Where someone has a right, another has a duty: We need to build a legal toolkit that protects people displaced by climate change
Although the term “climate refugee” has gained currency in policy circles and popular usage, the reality is that refugee law—the 1951 Refugee Convention in particular—is not necessarily an adequate legal tool to protect people displaced by climate change. The Convention is best equipped to assist people fleeing persecution based on “race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”. Moreover, the impacts of climate are extremely varied, therefore it will be difficult to arrive at a single definition of “climate migrant” that will protect people and not exclude others who may be equally deserving and in need of protection. An alternative is a human rights-based approach to disaster and climate related displacement. In other words, determining how environmental change violates human rights can become a pathway to holding states accountable to their citizens. This accountability would apply to different phases of displacement: in the period prior to displacement, including prevention and preparedness for disasters, during evacuation and displacement, and finally, in the creation of durable solutions. Therefore, legal solutions should be fine-tuned to local conditions to attend to the specific circumstances that different communities face.
4. The relationship between climate change and conflict needs to be contextualized to find locally sustainable and durable solutions
It is well-established that there are now more people displaced as a result of natural disasters than political conflict, and that these displacements are happening all over the world. At the same time, disasters and politics are more frequently acting together to create displacements. In fact, 95% of new displacements in 2020 occurred in countries that have high or very high levels of vulnerability to climate change. Despite these general macro-scale correlations, however, establishing causation is more difficult. Experts clearly outlined how important it is to carefully contextualize people’s experiences with climate change impacts and conflict. Climate change may introduce new threats to livelihoods and/or exacerbate ongoing economic, social, and political problems that may lead to displacement. If they are to be effective, responses to conflict must be grounded in the specific local situations. Universal ideas—including that climate migration will result from greater and more violent competition for resources, for example—are damaging because they can result in bad policies. In another example, we learned that resettling populations to reduce the risk of hazards can be a violent process, one that silences and erases community histories. Such a process may generate more conflict instead of reducing it. The knowledge(s) and experiences of the people at the heart of conflict must be privileged in the process of creating durable solutions. In the words of one expert: “Solutions must be owned by the people who will live with them.”
5. How mobility is framed matters in science and policy
Researchers have pointed out that the idea of “climate refugees” is problematic because it stokes fears that people displaced by climate change will threaten national security of the countries of the Global North, place burdens on social welfare programs, and negatively affect the cultures and traditions of destination countries. These fears have been exacerbated by populist politicians who capitalize on the othering of migrants, convincing their constituents of the need to increase border control and further restrictions of legal paths to migration. In response to this, the idea that mobility is an adaptation to climate change has gained acceptance among academics and policy makers. This puts a positive spin on migration and highlights how migrants have agency and make appropriate decisions for themselves and their households in the face of changing environmental circumstances. However, this framing can also be problematic because migration may not always be adaptive. Whether or not migration will increase individuals’ and households’ wellbeing will likely be related to whether they had time to plan prior to migrating, as well as the conditions at the destination to support migrants once they arrive. What’s more, even if material wellbeing is achieved through migration, resettling can nevertheless lead to a sense of loss, especially with respect to cultural heritage, identity, and territory (see point 4). Finally, migration as adaptation can let powerful actors—such as those who created the unlivable conditions which forced communities to migrate in the first place—off the hook, shifting the focus onto migrants and away from the root causes of displacement.
Resist grand narratives, focus on specifics
My main takeaway from the ISCM was to resist the grand narratives about climate migration. Our understandings of the multiple drivers of different migratory flows must be contextualized in specific histories, environmental contexts, ongoing processes of dispossession, and migrants’ agency and possibilities in sending, transit, and destination countries. Prevention, preparedness, response, and the construction of durable solutions will not be successful without meaningful collaboration with the people affected by climate-induced displacement. Their voices, needs, desires, and experiences must be at the center of efforts which respond to climate migration in specific places.
Alison Elizabeth Lee is a sociocultural anthropologist at the Universidad de las Américas Puebla. Her research focuses on international migration, gender, borders, and political economy.
The Canadian government is facing demands to grant permanent residence to 1.7 million migrants living in the country in the interests of climate justice, after it offered fast track applications for people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
The Migrant Rights Network (MRE), which says it is Canada’s largest migrant-led coalition, joined with other groups last month to demand that prime minister Justin Trudeau implement a “comprehensive regularization program.”
This programme would ensure permanent residence for 1.2 million migrant workers, students, refugees and families in Canada, says MRE, as well as 500,000 undocumented residents.
Thousands of migrants and their supporters marched in cities across Canada on the 18th of September in support of the demand.
5000+ people 13 cities United.
Now, Parliament is back, and you must act: Tell @JustinTrudeau ensure #StatusforAll without exception or delay.
— Migrant Rights Network #StatusForAll (@MigrantRightsCA) September 20, 2022
Climate Action Network Canada (CAN-Rac), a body of more than 100 Canadian environmental groups, wrote to Trudeau and immigration minister Sean Fraser in August arguing that the “regularization” process is essential to climate justice.
Climate change exacerbates inequalities between rich countries, such as Canada, that are responsible for most of the world’s emissions and the “poorest, already marginalized and racialized groups – who bear climate impacts first and hardest,” said CAN-Rac.
It continued that the climate crisis causes displacement in a “myriad” of ways, including disasters, droughts and famines. “We urge you to seize this moment to address one of these profound injustices by extending permanent residence to all migrants, leaving no one behind.”
In May, Canada’s parliament passed a motion that the government should publicly release a plan to expand economic immigration pathways so workers at all skill levels can access permanent residency.
CAN-Rac said in its letter to Trudeau and Fraser that they therefore currently have a “strong mandate and a unique opportunity to correct a deep injustice in Canadian society.”
Air pollution is a big health threat as it is linked to long-term diseases, including cancer, heart problems and respiratory illnesses. In addition, experts are worried that air quality could get even worse this winter due to the looming energy crisis, especially if more people turn to resources such as coal and wood to heat their homes.
Furthermore, the claimants argue that while air pollution levels in Germany often comply with EU legislation, they are still four-five times higher than what the World Health Organization recommends in its 2021 guidelines for clean air. This means that even though cities are not considered polluted, people are still breathing dangerously dirty air.
The European Union has legally-binding air quality standards, but they haven’t changed since 2015. The European Commission is currently working to revise the air quality guidelines and align them more closely with the WHO recommendations, but it might take a while until they become obligatory for the member-states.
Despite the fact that the opinions of Advocate Generals are not legally binding, they are usually taken into account by the court. Therefore, if air pollution levels do not decrease in the near future, cases such as this one may become more common.
There has been an update on the case of the Torres Strait Islanders’ struggle for protection against the threat of climate-induced displacement. Already mentioned in an earlier Earth Refuge article, these low-lying lands, mainly populated by First Nations Australians, are facing a sea level rise which is double that of the global average. In addition to the direct damages caused by the floods themselves (such as infrastructure and crop destruction), the latter also deplete environmental resources such as edible fish, thereby jeopardising food security in the region.
Back in 2019, a group of local residents filed a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee, denouncing the Australian government’s failure to adapt to climate change and to protect impacted communities (e.g., by upgrading seawalls). Last week, the UN Human Rights Committee finally issued a decision declaring that “Australia’s failure to adequately protect indigenous Torres Islanders against adverse impacts of climate change violated their rights to enjoy their culture and be free from arbitrary interferences with their private life, family, and home”. Consequently, the Committee has urged the Australian government to “compensate the indigenous Islanders for the harm suffered, engage in meaningful consultations with their communities to assess their needs, and take measures to continue to secure the communities’ safe existence on their respective islands”.
In this case, individuals successfully took the matter into their own hands to compensate for their government’s failure to take relevant climate action. This development is indicative of what appears to be a trend of change in the global political landscape, where civil society actors and even individuals are seizing the power that national systems fail to exert to protect their people.
In 2022, Pakistan suffered unprecedented floods, brought on by a severe heatwave, followed by heavier-than-normal rains. According to recent data, the record rainfall was five times the 30-year average.
Homes, roads, railways, livestock, and crops were lost and thousands of schools and healthcare facilities were destroyed. Southern Sindh, the most affected region, is still in a critical situation, with many areas still submerged.
International Response
In September 2022 the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, visited Pakistan. During a press conference, he called for global financial support for the country and tougher action on climate change.
Pakistan is experiencing the worst effects of climate change although it is responsible for only around 0.6% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Guterres added that the international community should acknowledge this and especially the countries with a bigger contribution to climate change.
Health Risks
The UN and humanitarian partners have delivered more than one million life-saving items, including food, clean water and healthcare essentials. In September, the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund announced a $7 million disbursement and the UN launched a $160 million appeal to help Pakistan deal with the floods.
According to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, the relief missions are slow, and more than half a million people are still living in makeshift camps. This is increasing the risk of diseases and health professionals are already reporting surges in dengue, malaria and severe gastric infections. For example, waterborne diseases have pushed daily patient numbers to 90,000 in Sindh as access to health services, especially in rural areas, is still very limited.
Experts are concerned that with nearly half the country’s crops washed away, Pakistan is on the verge of a severe food crisis. This is very likely to have international implications as well. The country is the fourth-largest global rice exporter and any dramatic drop in exports will negatively affect the global food market.
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