Recognize Climate Refugees, Groups Urge Asia
As climate change causes increasing displacement, people fleeing natural disasters must be given the same protection as political refugees, three humanitarian groups argue in a new report on south Asia.
The region is particularly susceptible to natural disasters, with more than 46 million people displaced by droughts, cyclones and other crises between 2008 and 2013, Reuters reports.
The three bodies – Climate Action Network South Asia, Bread for the World and ActionAid – urge south Asian nations to overcome the political disputes that undermine regional cooperation, and to adopt a treaty recognizing climate refugees. Their plea was issued as the Global Forum on Migration and Development began in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
“The governments of south Asia must recognize that climate change knows no borders,” said Sanjay Vashist, Climate Action Network South Asia’s director. “Governments have a responsibility to use our shared mountains, rivers, history and cultures to seek common solutions to the droughts, sea-level rise and water shortages that the region is increasingly experiencing.”
ActionAid’s Harjeet Singh also called on wealthy nations to take responsibility for their role in causing climate change and to support Asian nations. “They must help fight the flames in south Asia and elsewhere that they themselves kindled through carbon emissions in the first place,” he said.
U.N. Halves Food Rations to Kenya Refugees
The United Nations World Food Program has halved food rations to refugees in Kenya because of funding shortages.
Even with the cuts, current food supplies will run out by the end of February 2017 if the WFP does not receive more aid, the organization warned.
“We are very worried about the impact of this on the refugees,” WFP spokeswoman Challiss McDonough told Reuters. “There is a chance – particularly if [the food ration cuts] go on for a long time – of health consequences, of deterioration in people’s nutritional status.”
Most of the refugees in Dadaab have already had their rations cut to 70 percent of the June 2015 levels. Some 434,000 refugees live in Kenya, including in Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, which the Kenyan government has vowed to close.
Turkey ‘Killed 163 Civilians Fleeing Syria This Year’
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Turkish border guards have killed at least 163 Syrian civilians trying to flee to Turkey since the beginning of the year.
Turkey closed its border with Syria in March 2015, citing an effort to keep out militants. The U.K.-based monitoring group says Turkey is enforcing the border closure with deadly force; some 31 children and 15 women were among those killed trying to cross this year, it says.
The organization called on the international community to hold Turkey accountable for killing refugees on its border. A diplomat told Voice of America that Europe has eased pressure on Turkey to open its border, out of concern that this would propel more Syrians to continue their journey to Europe.
Recommended Reads:
- The Wall Street Journal: Migrants in Greece Drop off Grid
- Internal Displacement Monitoring Center: 2016 Africa Report on Internal Displacement
- Deutsche-Welle: Gambian Refugees in Germany: Will They Have to Return Home?
- The Daily Beast: How Russia Makes – and Humiliates – Refugees
- University of Oxford: Gender, Violence and Vulnerability: Examining the Politics of Protection in the Current Refugee ‘Crisis’