Charting Justice for Refugee Relocation Under Extreme Climate Change

Abstract:

The geographer Yi-Fu Tuan famously wrote that “place is security, space is freedom.” For the world’s refugees, this axiom does not hold true. Violent conflict and political persecution compel individuals, families, and whole communities to leave their home country and seek asylum abroad – it is an involuntary migration, a forced displacement. The world has never had more refugees than today, and approximately 2.6 million refugees (10%) worldwide live in an option of last resort: refugee camps. Refugee camps may offer neither freedom nor refuge, as national refugee “warehousing” policies and laws often strip refugees of their agency, livelihood opportunities, and freedom of movement. These effects are not ephemeral, with the average stay in a refugee camp lasting more than 10 years.

There is rising concern about the viability of long-term human habitation in many of the world’s refugee camps due to climate change. African refugee hotspots are expected to be edged out of the human “climate niche” within the next 50 years, and extreme climate change-related weather events are already observed in many of the world’s refugee camps, from Lebanon to Iraq to Ethiopia. Refugees count themselves among the most vulnerable to climate extremes, but they are often excluded from mitigation, coping, and adaptation mechanisms and decision-making processes. For refugee camps facing extreme climate change effects, there are three potential options: the development of extensive on-site mitigation and adaptation measures, migration to a third country or the origin country, or relocation within the host country. This presentation addresses the pending necessity for the relocation of refugee camps along with their inhabitants. We provide an overview of refugee displacement and settlement in camps; the various ways that climate change is already affecting refugee camps; and detail a justice-based approach to camp relocation that ensures refugee agency, dignity, and security.