2010 Summer Academy Recommends New Policy and Institutional Frameworks for Better Protection of Environmental Migrants
The 2010 Summer Academy on
Social Vulnerability organized by UNU-EHS and MRF took
place from 25 to 31 July in Hohenkammer, Germany. Twenty PhD researchers from 13
countries and experts from UNHCR,
IOM, the European Commission and Council of
Europe convened to address the key issues and gaps in protection for
environmentally induced migrants.
This Summer Academy
prepared a synthesis of the frames and recommendations to assist in climate
change migration through a series of working groups and expert roundtables.
In the light of the
increasing problems and protection gaps in the area of environmental migration,
the Academy participants recommend the policymakers to create adequate legal
frameworks. These include complete mechanisms for transparency: for instance, the
Guiding Principles on Internally
Displaced Persons should cover those affected by climate change and at the
national level, resettlement policies
need to be explicitly drawn. They must be posted to the public so that notice
of these plans is easily available and open for local inputs. They should also include
alternative plans for those who chose to remain. Participants also recommend that
a responsible party for migration issues at the national level should be established
to coordinate issues related to environmentally induced migration. Among other
policy solutions, participants propose the adequate assessment of social,
cultural and environmental impact indicators within every vulnerable community,
as well as in potential resettlement sites. Professionalization of resettlement
personnel to assist the responsible
party at the government level is necessary. Only then their endeavours of
resettlement preparedness in the long and short term can be successful.
Furthermore, they should be able to cultivate local, cultural knowledge which is
imperative for success. Developing synergies between disaster risk reduction,
climate change adaptation and development is a further component of efficient
resettlement policy.
In the context of climate-induced international
migration two broad strategies are thinkable: adaptation on the one hand and
protection on the other hand to address the needs of migrants, destination and
source countries in the face of climate change. States should offer the most
vulnerable communities new opportunities to migrate legally and voluntarily to
establish alternative livelihoods through circular labour migration schemes. In
addition, national governments should establish a temporary relocation scheme
to address the fact that some migration or displacement across borders is
inevitable due to the impacts of climate change. Such a scheme would offer new
protection frameworks for those who are displaced by fast and/or the slow onset
climate change, and who have no opportunity to relocate in their home country
and/or cannot return. It would also seek to reduce irregular migration by
providing temporary legal avenues for those most critically affected, and to
assist countries with potential mass displacement across borders. States should also extend the stay of deportation for irregular migrants who cannot return to their home country due to climate
change and where no internal flight alternative is possible or survival is
threatened due to vulnerability. Lastly, states should consider the
establishment of a new legal status akin to asylum under refugee law for those
fleeing environmental disaster.
The outcomes of the academy will be integrated into
climate negotiations through UNU side events at the climate talks and fed into
various policy relevant processes.
For more information, participant papers and presentations from
the Summer Academy 2010, please refer to the downloads.
