The Dilemma and Solutions of Climate Refugees under the Perspective of International Law

Abstract

Recently, the international society has paid increasing attention to the saving of climate refugees. Climate refugees are people who are forced to migrate across borders because their survival rights and development rights are threatened or will be threatened due to abnormal climate changes. However, as the international status of climate refugees is still unclear, the protection of their rights also faces many difficulties. First, it is difficult for climate refugees to obtain legal status in international law. Second, the existing international migration system is not comprehensive. Third, the judicial relief method is not perfect, and there exists increasing difficulty of the climate refugees to prove their identities as plaintiffs. Therefore, this essay advocates that climate refugees should be incorporated into the refugee protection system. In other words, international legislation should be adopted to make specific provisions for climate refugees, to clarify the scope of responsibility of international entities for the protection of climate refugees, to establish a special relief fund for climate refugees, to reverse the burden of the proof in judicial relief, and to actively promote the improvement of the system for the protection of the rights of climate refugees under the framework of the international law.