C-4 : Climate-Induced Migrations in Times of COVID-19: A Case of South Asian Countries
- There is need for collection action at the regional level in South Asia,
despite animosities, since all regional countries have fragile economies and
cannot work alone to address climate change issues. Only a collective and
collaborative approach will help South Asia address climate-induced
migration to protect its people.
- South Asia needs to move and work together to solve its climate change
problems by putting politics aside.
- SAARC and other regional forums should be the voice of climate change
issues, especially climate-induced migration. There is also a need for data
sharing rather than working in silos.
- Think tanks should help South Asian governments when it comes to research
and data analysis about climate migration.
- Politically correct definitions of climate-induced migration are needed since
no country is immune from climate change impacts anymore and one major
long-term impact on South Asian countries will be mass movement of
people when their homes become inundated or uninhabitable due to climate
change.
- The old, disabled, women and children are the most vulnerable when it
comes to climate migration. There is need for long-term international legal
protection mechanisms for climate migrants. Countries should not close their
borders to climate migrants who come from neighboring regions and have
been hard hit by catastrophe.
- While in the given situation, tackling COVID-19 assumes priority for
governments, it would be a missed opportunity if they do not relate the
migrant crisis to the increasingly growing impacts of climate change that
countries are facing and how they are impacting lives, especially those of the
poor.
- Targeted policies towards migrants are the need of the hour. This means
supporting farmers and rural women, making food systems more resilient,
reviving local economies and investing in public services, such as health and
education, so that countries have a better chance of surviving this crisis and
future threats.
- Regional countries need to come together for yet another looming crisis –
climate change. Not as mere tokenism, but to take real action to build
resilience, prevent displacement and protect the rights of climate migrants
- SAARC countries must cooperate and come up with common policies, codes
and responses, share information and learn from each other’s experiences.
- More debate leading to some concrete research should be generated on cross
border-migration in terms of COVID-19 and climate change.
- Issues like resilience building, migration management and migration as
adaptation strategy and governance should be addressed under a well-
defined strategy.
- Poor vulnerable migrants must be provided with livelihood and other
facilities such as education, health, social protection, etc.
- Safe shelters and camps are required for climate-induced migrants in case
they are infected with COVID-19. Healthcare facilities should also be
provided to pregnant women and children.
- All the governments, particularly in South Asia, need to devise a joint
strategy to control emissions especially when more pandemics are predicted
to hit the world in the future.
- There is a need to provide training, information and resources to the local
people in Tharparkar and Muzaffargarh who migrate due to climate change
impacts.
- There is a need to improve flow of information as well as access of
microfinance to rural landless classes.
- Pakistan should work on a Climate Change Policy that includes internal
migration, its socioeconomic dimensions and develop a climate migrant
registration system under that.
- Disaster risk response systems need to be enhanced and improved.
- Universities, local colleges and research institutions can develop research
programs for climate change-induced migration patterns and linkages.
- There is a need for renewable energy trade in South Asia region.
- There is a need for implementing social protection schemes of migrants as
well as legal protection schemes for them.
- SAARC can play a role by tracking migration patterns and keeping member
states informed.
- There is a need to share cross-border research data on migration to improve
evidence-based bilateral and multilateral policies.
- South Asia needs short, medium- and long-term initiatives to address gender
issues of climate migration.
