Climate change and displacement - How people are being forced to flee their homes | DW Documentary

Over the past 10 years, climate change has displaced an average of 70,000 people, every day. This, according to figures from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. Poorer countries are particularly hard hit.

There is no universal legal framework that would offer these people protection. Climate-induced displacement is not recognised as a valid ground for asylum under the Geneva Convention. Now, three countries in Latin America, the Pacific and Asia are responding to an emergency that directly affects each of them.

One of these countries is Bangladesh. It is one of the places most severely affected by climate change. In 2024, around 2.4 million people in Bangladesh became internally displaced. Most of them lost their homes due to a natural disaster. Cyclones and tropical storms cause devastating damage, while rising sea levels are flooding mangrove forests and agricultural land. Melting glaciers in the Himalayas are causing flooding along the rivers. In new model villages, communities displaced by soil erosion and salinization are being provided with accommodation and land.

In Colombia, pressure from lawyers led to the legal recognition of the first victims of climate change. The historic ruling recognizes that displacement is not only caused by violence and armed conflict, but also by environmental factors.

In the Pacific, regional solidarity is being prioritized in the face of rising sea levels, which threaten the very existence of several nations. At the same time, policy is shaped by a recognition of the deep ties people have to their homeland and their history. For people here, leaving would be tantamount to exile.

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