By Talia Gerstle, Summer 2018 Clean Energy Fellow
Today, there are more people displaced than during any other time since World War II. One person, every second. This is the rate at which people are forced to flee their homes because of natural disasters, such as drought, extreme flooding, and hurricanes. However, of the 25.4 million refugees worldwide, not a single one has been able to receive legal protection for life-threatening environmental factors or the consequences of climate change.
Over the past few years, Lesvos, Greece, has become a hotspot for refugees. Only 4.1 miles separate its shores from Turkey, which has led hundreds of thousands of people to make the dangerous journey across the sea as they seek asylum in Europe. Images of frightened families crammed into small rubber boats took the media by storm in 2015, and though their stories have mostly disappeared from the headlines, the situation remains dire.
I had the opportunity to spend a few months working with an NGO on Lesvos last fall, and I witnessed first-hand the disparate ways that government officials choose to treat refugees. On Lesvos, there are two main camps — Moria and Kara Tepe. Moria is located in an old prison and those who live there say it still feels like one. There is capacity for 1,800 but a current residency of 6,000. There is no education provided for the thousands of children living there, who play in dangerous and unsanitary spaces. I watched as children would slide down a hill on trash bags for fun, sit with blank faces inside their tents, and wait in line for hours alongside parents for their next small meal. There is extremely limited healthcare. Residents are stuck in limbo as they await their asylum, a process that can take anywhere from one month to over two years. Individuals have been stripped of nearly all autonomy over their own lives.
As a response to the abuse of human rights occurring in Moria, the municipality of Lesvos created Kara Tepe. Kara Tepe’s residents fondly refer to the camp as a village, and the goal of this village is to re-instill dignity and to empower all who live there. A team of refugees volunteer daily with NGOs to deliver food to each home, run children’s activities, and coordinate community kitchens. Even the terminology, where “resident” is used in place of “refugee,” helps to restore a sense of humanity. Every person I met in this camp shares an astonishing resilience and desire to begin a new, meaningful life. However, despite these improved conditions in Kara Tepe, the legal status, and therefore the future, of these refugees is still up in the air.
So what has been done to empower more displaced people and ensure that they receive sufficient protection under international law? In 1951, the majority of UN member states passed the Refugee Convention, creating the legal definition of a refugee. However, this definition does not include victims of climate change, so people cannot claim asylum for this reason. However, studies show that, by 2050, over 140 million people could be displaced by climate change. This troubling discrepancy is cause for serious concern as the number of human-caused natural disasters continues to increase at exponential rates.
As I read about the strong anti-immigrant rhetoric surrounding the family separations happening at our own borders, I can’t help but think of all the incredibly resilient and kind people I met in Lesvos. My experiences have taught me that both government officials and individuals have the power and agency, and the responsibility, to support these vulnerable populations. In addition to adding climate change as a legitimate reason for seeking asylum, we also need to do more to create a future in which fewer people are being forced to leave their home countries.
If you’re interested in learning more about the intersection of the global refugee crisis and climate change or want to learn more about what you can do locally to support refugee communities, join us on July 25th. Sign up here and share the Facebook event with your friends!
References:
http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/03/19/climate-change-could-force-over-140-million-to-migrate-within-countries-by-2050-world-bank-report
http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/1951-refugee-convention.html