2015•12•02 Paris Eco-Business
Migration from low-lying islands in the Pacific that are being overtopped with sea level rise and storms has already begun, but many others who want to escape have no money or passports to enable them to do and face being trapped.
This is the conclusion of a study into Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu, three of the countries that are expected to become virtually uninhabitable later this century as sea levels rise.
One problem is that, under the Geneva Convention, only people fleeing wars and persecution by other humans can be granted refugee status. That leaves people trying to escape droughts, floods and natural disasters with no claim on other states. In Europe, for example, they are classed as economic migrants.
Read the article online here.
Also available through: