Refugee crises are no longer driven solely by wars or political persecution. Today, climate disasters are forcing millions to abandon their homes. These are the “climate refugees”, people displaced by floods, droughts, rising sea levels, wildfires, and other extreme environmental events caused by climate change.
In Bangladesh, one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, thousands have been forced to leave coastal villages due to rising seas and eroding riverbanks. Salha Begum, a mother of three, shares: “Our home has been flooded three times in five years… We have no place to live anymore except in the makeshift shelters on the outskirts of Dhaka.”
Victims of Climate Change
In Africa, severe desertification has forced residents from vast areas of Niger, Chad, and Mali to migrate to more fertile regions. According to reports by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 80% of displaced people in the African Sahel have been driven from their homes due to climate-related causes.
In the Pacific Islands, countries like Kiribati and Tuvalu face the real threat of complete disappearance due to rising sea levels. Some governments have even purchased land in neighboring countries such as Fiji, preparing for the potential relocation of their populations, a move described by the United Nations as “informal climate asylum.”
Climate Refugees Without an Identity
Despite the growing numbers of affected people, international law does not officially recognize “climate refugees”, and the 1951 Refugee Convention does not include them.
According to recent statistics from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, over 376 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced by floods, storms, earthquakes, and droughts since 2008, with a record 32.6 million displaced in 2022 alone.
Since 2020, the total number of disaster-induced displacements has risen annually by an average of 41% compared to the previous decade, a worrying trend clearly driven by climate change. As a result, the number of climate refugees is expected to continue increasing.
The Institute for Economics and Peace projects that under worst-case scenarios, up to 1.2 billion people could be displaced by 2050 due to natural disasters and environmental threats.
Despite steps in the right direction, national and international responses remain limited, and protection for affected populations is insufficient. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) predicts that over 200 million people could be displaced by environmental disasters by 2050 if radical measures are not taken to curb climate change and support vulnerable communities.
The stories of climate refugees remind the world that the climate crisis is not theoretical—it is a daily catastrophe that robs people of their homes, identities, and even their homelands.
