Category: Climate refugees

Crisis! New Zealand court denies “climate refugee” claim

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Yikes! Bangkok gone by 2030!  Then Bangkokians will be coming to your house to live!

The scaremongers say its bye-bye for Bangladesh and Bangkok!   And, it’s all the fault of Australia’s unwelcoming attitude toward third-worlders wishing to swamp their country.

For previous posts on “Climate refugees” including more on the legal case that just went down in flames, go here.

Here is the news at Independent Australia.   Truth be told a huge battle rages behind the scenes between the environmental industrial complex and the human rights industrial complex over the UN Convention on Refugees which focuses on “persecution” for defining what is a refugee or asylum seeker.

The New Zealand courts have denied granting asylum to a Kiribati climate refugee, but that isn’t going to stop the problem. Deputy editor Sandi Keane reports.

THIS WEEK, the High Court of New Zealand delivered a blow to a largely ignored asylum seeker problem that has been quietly bleeding and threatening to hemorrhage into a full-scale global catastrophe within two or three decades.

A 37-year-old man from the tiny, obscure nation of Kiribati, Ioane Teitiota, stood to make history as the world’s first climate refugee. He argued that global warming is a form of persecution and that those displaced by its effects should be recognized under the UN’s Refugee Convention.  However, in his judgment, Justice John Priestley said it was not the High Court’s place to alter the scope of the Refugee Convention by granting Mr Teitiota’s leave for appeal.

The judge said the enormity and scale of the problem was a fundamental reason for his decision:

“On a broad level, were they to succeed and be adopted in other jurisdictions, at a stroke, millions of people who are facing medium-term economic deprivation, or the immediate consequences of natural disasters or warfare, or indeed presumptive hardships caused by climate change, would be entitled to protection under the Refugee Convention.”

Although he has lived in New Zealand since 2007, the government has refused Mr Teitiota and his family asylum based on the current convention which was drawn up more than 50 years ago, before rising seas started threatening the 33 low-lying equatorial islands and atolls that make up the tiny nation, just under 4,000 kilometres north-east of Brisbane.

Read the remainder of the story if you wish to learn about Bangladesh and Bangkok dropping off the map someday and how mean Australia is for not letting them all come live there!

Climate migration advocates looking for the right term—the right “advocacy tool”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve written about so-called “climate refugees” 31 previous times (see our archive here) and noted that there is an on-going kerfuffle between the environmentalists who want to use the term “climate refugee” and humanitarians who don’t want to sully the word “refugee,” or more precisely don’t want to go too far astray from the definition of a refugee as a person who is persecuted under the  Geneva Convention.

So, here is an interview with a woman who works for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) which is also basically a federal contractor that processes refugees overseas before they come to the US.  In the interview Ms. Ionesco dances around the “climate refugee” term and in the end makes clear that they must find a jazzy term for “environmental migrants” to build public relations around.

From Deutsche Welle:

Dina Ionesco has been working at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) since 2011 in the field of climate change and the environment. She coordinates IOM’s participation at international climate negotiations, establishes partnerships with other institutions or training programs and writes for IOM’s publications.

The Geneva-based IOM fights for the rights of migrants around the world. The organization’s predecessor was founded in 1951 to address migration issues following World War II. Today, the IOM includes 151 member states.

Global Ideas: Ms. Ionesco, a man named Ioane Teitota from the island of Kiribati has sparked a global debate because he’s the first person ever to seek asylum for his family as climate refugees. He says his family has no future in their country because of rising water levels. Now, New Zealand has to decide whether to grant him asylum in a landmark case. You work for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), one of the most important global aid groups for migrants. Would the IOM recognize Ioane Teitota as a climate refugee?  [We discussed the New Zealand case here.—ed]

Dina Ionesco: New Zealand will have to decide based on the case. It’s the prerogative of the state to decide what is considered a reason to grant asylum. Our organization is only there to offer a platform for countries to discuss issues and also to work together to innovative solutions and bring things to the agenda.

We, at the IOM don’t use the ‘climate refugee’ terminology because it’s not directly in the Geneva Convention which officially lays down when somebody is recognized as a refugee. It would be an interpretation and we can’t do that. What matters for us is that in a case like this, the rights of a person are recognized, that the best solution is found for the rights of the migrant. Refugee is a term from the Geneva Convention that has to show persecution for gender, for religion, for conflict, war – it’s very specific.

[…..]

[Global ideas] Still, the IOM does make clear that climate change can be a driver of migration. Your member states agreed back in 2007 to use the term ‘environmental migrant’ right?

[Ionesco] Yes, this definition is the result of 20 years of hard work. It’s now used often in the international debate but it’s also criticized a lot.

[Global ideas] The IOM maintains that its definition doesn’t carry any normative consequences, but rather describes what an environmental migrant is. If it doesn’t have any consequences, why do you need a term for it?

[Ionesco]  We need it in order to sensitize people that environmental changes play a huge role in triggering human migration. And we need it as an advocacy tool so that environment matters and migration are given more importance on a political policy level.

It is incredible that throughout human history people have moved due to changing environmental conditions and it is only now we must figure out who is going to pay for this—-either financially or through a loss of sovereignty (the bottomline of the so-called advocacy)—otherwise, why does anyone care what terminology is used.

Kiribati man looking to be the first “climate refugee” allowed to stay in New Zealand

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Oh brother, here we go (again)!

Australian Refugee Council President, Phil Glendenning: “This is a new cohort of people who are emerging, the rest of the world needs to pay attention.”

Never mind that the release a week or so ago of the latest UN report on the climate admitted to a “lull in warming” for the last 15 years or so.

Here is the story from New Zealand, originally written by AP but apparently re-worked at “Climate Progress” a publication of Soros’ Think Progress.

Readers may wish to go back to our previous post on Kiribati to learn about the massive engineering project the government there might like to undertake (they will need your $$$).

Climate Progress:

If ocean levels rise by as much as three feet by the end of the century, as predicted by the Fifth IPCC Assessment report released last week, the Pacific island nation of Kiribati — composed of 32 atolls — would mostly disappear.

The potential impacts on the 100,000 citizens of Kiribati, not to mention the millions of others living in low-lying island nations and coastal areas, of this climate change-induced forced exodus are already playing out in New Zealand where a Kiribati man is trying to convince the court that he’s a climate refugee.

“AF” came to New Zealand for “better prospects.”   He is an “economic migrant” not a “refugee!”

The man, referred to as “AF” in hearings, and his wife came to New Zealand six years ago for higher ground and better prospects, according to The Associated Press. Since then, immigration authorities have twice rejected his argument that rising sea levels make it too dangerous for him and his family to return to Kiribati.

On October 16 the case will go before New Zealand’s High Court.

Bruce Burson, a member of New Zealand’s Immigration and Protection Tribunal, has said that the legal concept of a refugee is someone that is being persecuted, which requires human interaction. Burson also said that the man’s claim was rejected because the family’s predicament was the same as faced by the entire population of Kiribati.

As I mentioned in previous posts on the subject, there is a Leftwing internal squabble on-going between the faction that wishes to keep as its own, and the one wishing to take control of, the word “refugee.”  Underlying both of the factions is the ultimate goal of pouring the ‘have-nots’ into the West to create chaos and bring “change.”

You can see the potential for an even greater stampede to the West from the third world if migrants like “AF” are successful.

The legal case remains a long shot, but one that deserves close attention due to the likelihood of similar cases in the future. Sea level rise impacts not only low-lying islands with small populations but also heavily populated coastal regions, such as Kolkata, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

I didn’t know that refugee advocates in Australia were pushing this new designation back in April.  Here is Australia’s Refugee Council head honcho, Phil Glendenning.  This is, of course, B.A. (before Abbott!).

In April the Refugee Council of Australia implored the Australian government to become the first nation in the world to recognize populations displaced due to changes in climate as “climate refugees.”

Phil Glendenning, president of the Refugee Council of Australia, told The Guardian, “These are people who are not suffering from persecution because of their beliefs, race or because they belong to a particular group.” As a result, “they don’t meet the Refugee Convention criteria but, nevertheless, there will be a need for people to be resettled because they have been displaced by climate change. This is a new cohort of people who are emerging, the rest of the world needs to pay attention.”

For more, see our ‘climate refugees’ category, here.

World Council of Churches joins enviros to push UN on ‘climate refugees’

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The groups are going to send postcards to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by December 10th to try to persuade the UN to do something to save the people affected by weather.   Isn’t that a cause we should all get behind? Weather affects us all!

Here is the news at AllAfrica:

In order to build on its work for the protection of climate refugees, the World Council of Churches (WCC) joins an innovative campaign “Postcards from the Frontlines” aiming to achieve urgently needed recognition and protection for climate refugees around the world.

According to reports millions of people were forced from their homes due to weather-related events in the year 2012 alone.

Initiated by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) in collaboration with ByPost, the “Postcards from the Frontlines” campaign allows people to send a free postcard from phone or desktop, which will arrive as a real physical postcard at the United Nations secretary-general’s office in New York, calling for action on climate refugees. The project aims to reach 100,000 postcards by Human Rights Day, 10 December, when a public response will be sought from the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

The campaign was launched on 24 September.

A couple of years ago there was quite a ruckus among the Leftwing groups over the use of the word “refugee” when discussing global warming.  One side of the argument was that the word “refugee” should be reserved for those who are persecuted and essentially come under the aegis of the 1951 Refugee Convention.  They had their feathers ruffled by the climate refugee pushers.  I don’t know if they have worked out their differences, but the phrase ‘climate refugee’ seems to be in common use now.   See our whole category on ‘climate refugees’ to learn more about the squabble.

By the way, we know of one off-shoot of the World Council of Churches resettling regular refugees and that is the Virginia Council of Churches which is almost completely funded by you, the taxpayer.

World Council of Churches a front for communism?

That is what the author Christine Meinsen contends in a little book I just found at Amazon entitled:  Communist Infiltration of American Churches 1887 – 2012: World Council of Churches National Council of Churches .

Here is the write-up at Amazon:

Who knew when they placed their money in the collection plate Sunday morning they were financing the removal of prayer from America’s schools and “giving aid and comfort to the Communist movement”?

This book begins with a detailed list of Communist goals straight from the Congressional Record then, with references included, provides documented accounts of church activity and funding used to aid communist agitators in their pursuit to achieve those precise goals.

Shockingly, many of these goals have already been achieved. It began in 1887, when Josiah Strong coordinated the General Christian Conference to pool America’s churches into one of the most elusive united fronts for communism the world has ever seen. Strong’s organization morphed and expanded eventually culminating in the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches.

Behind the scenes these groups, along with a host of others, founded by politicians and millionaires, have been directing the church’s progressive transformation from one that promotes soul saving evangelism and apostolic training into a mission to advance communism throughout America and the world.

This book provides a brief but detailed account of some of the most shocking activities of the communist front organizations that have infiltrated churches in America and around the globe. Also included is a Resolution to get your church out of these hideously deceitful organizations. What we don’t know, has already hurt us.

Syrian crisis due to global warming, huh?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Regular readers here know that the latest trend in refugee crisis mongering involves the so-called “climate refugees.”  See our entire category on the topic here.

Never mind over a thousand years of Muslims squabbling among themselves and the rise in Islamist aggression throughout the Middle East and the world, here is an author linking the Syrian civil war to global warming and sea levels rising (in Syria?).

But, didn’t we just learn last week that in fact the polar ice caps are growing (not melting)?

Here is the convoluted article that even draws Alex Jones into the kerfuffle.

Policymic:  more conflicts, violence, rapes due to “climate change” (they had to avoid saying “global warming” when they began to realize the world wasn’t warming at the moment).

Take climate change, for example. Science Magazine published a research study in August 2013 linking increased rates of human conflict — wars, murders, rapes, and other violence — to increased global temperatures and climate instability. We have empirical evidence predicting that there will be increased numbers of people victimized by violence, particularly in the areas with the fewest resources to deal with climate change. These are some of the areas you already hear about in the news: Syria, Libya, rural India. We need to plan for these humanitarian interventions now.

The climate has been changing since the beginning of time, but to hear these people talk about it, the only solution is for Western countries to invite the world’s impoverished people to come to the West and thus drag us into poverty as well.