'Conspiracy of silence' over climate migrants: UN official

By Staff Writers
Barcelona, Spain (AFP) Nov 5, 2009

A “conspiracy of silence” is stifling debate over the future of people who become displaced through climate change, a top UN official for refugees says. In an interview with AFP at the UN climate talks in Barcelona, Jean-Francois Durieux, in charge of climate change at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the question “remains taboo.” Under 1951 UN statutes, the term “refugee” applies specifically to a victim of violence or persecution, who is then entitled to help and asylum in other countries. But no such status exists for people who are forced from their home by drought, flood, storms and rising sea levels unleashed by man-made global warming. “There’s a conspiracy of silence at the moment,” Durieux said. “The countries of origin (of displaced people) and host countries are not eager, and are even hostile, about opening up the question,” he said. “The reason is because there is no reliable way of estimating how many people could be affected.” The Stern Review, a 2006 assessment on the economics of climate change authored by British economist Sir Nicholas Stern, quoted estimates of as many as 150-200 million “permanently displaced” environmental refugees by mid-century. An estimate put forward by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) suggests 200 to 250 million by the same date. …

‘Conspiracy of silence’ over climate migrants: UN official