BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

CONCEPTUALIZING ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES: DO THEY REQUIRE SEPARATE ATTENTION?

Author: Md. Jahan Sholeb

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2018v39n4a4

ABSTRACT

Global climate change is responsible for creating various types of security threats over the years. This incident also has posed major challenges to the natural resources aggravating socio-economic crises and triggering different level of inter-state and intra-state conflict. Various climatic hazards tend to induce migration both within a country and beyond national border which might exacerbate social instability and disorder among the international community, particularly in the conflict prone areas. The nexus between environmental change and resultant displacement remains one of the most debated and controversial issues of contemporary international affairs. Till date, the issue of involuntary or forced migration is yet to receive attention from the policy-makers. Identification of the environmentally displaced people is a big challenge mainly because migration is a complex, and to a large extent, context-specific issue. However, without paying due attention, the miseries of environmentally displaced people will only aggravate. This paper is an endeavour to explore the scenario of environmentally displaced people in both of the contexts of contemporary international relations and mainstream refugee regime. With the same token, it also tries to assess whether any separate mechanism or special attention is needed to provide protection to the environment-induced refugees.