It has been estimated that the world may see upwards of 200 million climate change refugees by the year 2050. These people may be forced to leave their homes for a number of reasons: rising sea levels, natural disasters, and shifting weather patterns that make farming and everyday life impossible. However, as with much of the discourse on climate change, there is a problem with the farsighted nature of such an estimate. This is not an issue that can be dealt with at any point between now and 2050. The refugees and political tensions over climate change are already here.
As merely one example, the border between Bangladesh and India has seen rising tension, particularly in the past six years. Many people used to disregard the border, crossing it for work, shopping, and particularly immigration. As well as by poverty, Bangladeshis are driven to migrate to India by the massive climate change the country is seeing. Rising temperatures affect water availability and viability of farmland, floods devastate villages, and countless fishermen are seeing their catches decline. The number of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in India is not known, but estimates range up to 10 million. In reaction to this, the Indian government fenced much of the Bangladesh-India border in 2007, and began boat patrols for the parts of the border spanning water. However, the most controversial part of the border control is the shoot-on-sight policy enforced by the Indian border patrol.
In its efforts to prevent cross border migration, the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) has been reported to have killed many hundreds of Bangladeshis. The BSF has also been accused of abducting and killing children, and arbitrarily killing civilians. The Human Rights Watch has condemned the BSF, but though this policy has ended lives, broken families, and terrified countless Bangladeshis, many continue trying to cross.
Indo-Bangladeshi Barrier
People who are braving bullets for the chance of a better life are clearly facing some sort of desperation. And yet at this point in time, many countries, including Canada, do not accept climate change as a reason for a refugee claim. When homes and livelihoods are being destroyed by environmental events, it can pose as much risk to these people’s wellbeing as many forms of persecution. Why then, aren’t they being protected? The executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies has stated the belief that the Western countries, which played the greatest role in triggering climate change, should take these refugees in, since they are the ones who indirectly displaced them. Do you think such an arrangement would be just? Does India also have an obligation? Solutions for dealing with people displaced by climate change will be crucial in the near future, but they are also crucial now.
Unhinge the Ouroboros 