Climate change may mean migrants can’t be returned to hard-hit regions: internal IRCC document

Appropriate flagging of potential future issues:

Canada’s immigration department may soon need to factor in climate change when deciding whether to deport some asylum seekers to their home countries, an internal government document suggests.

The analysis on “climate mobility” by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says that the federal government may not be able to deport people to regions hit hard by floods, drought or rising sea levels.

The 2024 internal IRCC document, obtained through an access to information request, says “Canada does not have a formal position or strategy on how to address the complex nexus between climate events and mobility.”

It notes that climate events are not currently a ground for protection under the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or Canada’s system of determining asylum cases.

But it says that refugee claims may be affected by a “watershed” 2020 decision by the United Nations Human Rights Committee that concluded climate change may trigger obligations not to deport some people….

Source: Climate change may mean migrants can’t be returned to hard-hit regions: internal IRCC document