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Environmentally Induced Displacement and the 1951 Refugee Convention: Pathways to Recognition

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Environment, Forced Migration and Social Vulnerability

Abstract

The potential for environmental degradation to cause or contribute to migration outflows raises the issue of the appropriate response by receiving states and the international community in general. As one of the primary international treaties dealing with migration, there is a need for the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (the Convention) to be placed at the heart of any debate about the recognition of environmentally displaced persons.

This chapter is written in the author’s personal capacity. It neither does purport to represent the views of the New Zealand Refugee Status Appeals Authority or any other member thereof, nor does it purport to represent the view the author would take in any particular case.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Betts (2005: 4) observes

    In the refugee context, the ‘north’ can be regarded to comprise the industrialised third-country asylum states, which are generally outside the refugees’ regions of origin. Meanwhile, the ‘south’ invariably comprises the refugee producing, transit or first asylum host states within regions of origin.

  2. 2.

    Cited in Hugo (1996: 107).

  3. 3.

    See, for example, Gleditsch (1998: 390–391); Levy (1995: 57); Ronnfelt (1997: 477–478).

  4. 4.

    As to which, see Pelling and Dill (2006: 5).

  5. 5.

    See A v MIMEA [1998] INLR 1 at p. 19 (High Court of Australia); AH (Sudan) v Secretary of State [2007] 3 WLR 832 at p. 844 (House of Lords).

  6. 6.

    See Castles (2002: 10).

  7. 7.

    See Recital 14 of the Directive and Decisions of the New Zealand Refugee Status Appeals Authority (RSAA) in Refugee Appeal No. 59 (19 May 1992) and Refugee Appeal No. 75977 (22 November 2007), pp. 83–85.

  8. 8.

    See Directive Article 9(1)(a) and Refugee Appeal Nos. 75228 and 75229 (19 November 2002), p. 88, respectively.

  9. 9.

    This discriminatory denial serves to distinguish these types of cases from those where the receiving state is simply unable to provide essential health care. Recent decisions of the European Court of Human Rights have increased the threshold for obtaining relief against expulsion in these cases: compare D v UK [1997] 24 EHRR 423 with N v UK [2008] Imm. AR 657.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Refugee Status Appeals Authority, Auckland, New Zealand

    Bruce Burson

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  1. Bruce Burson
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Correspondence to Bruce Burson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Environment, Human Security, (UNU-EHS), United Nations University, Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10, Bonn, 53113, Germany

    Tamer Afifi

  2. Arbeiterstrandstrasse 61, Vienna, 1210, Austria

    Jill Jäger

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Burson, B. (2010). Environmentally Induced Displacement and the 1951 Refugee Convention: Pathways to Recognition. In: Afifi, T., Jäger, J. (eds) Environment, Forced Migration and Social Vulnerability. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12416-7_1

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