"International Journal of Geography, Geology and Environment"
2022, Vol. 4, Issue 1, Part B
Accessing the impacts of climate change on South Asia: A study of climate refugees; the ignored victims of climate change
Author(s): Vani Dhaka, Kartik Saini and Devansh Chaudhary
Abstract: Sitting inside a small room in Dhaka’s largest slum, 46-year-old Nafisa’s voice is breaking from keeping her tears at bay as she shares her experience of migrating from rural Bangladesh. “We used to live on the banks of the Payra river. My house was situated at the embarkments near the river. When the river started breaking, my house was wiped away and I came to Dhaka with my children. We shifted to a slum and it caught fire in 2004. We became destitute again. In 2007, during the cyclone Sidr, and within five minutes, seven members of my family were washed away by the water. My parents were among the seven. Everything became a graveyard and we had nowhere to go. We were not allowed into other countries and thus, I had to come back to Dhaka along with my children.”1Nafisa is just one of lakhs of people who are permanently displaced from their homes due to climate disasters. Climate change is not just an environmental issue but a social and political one too; and it needs to be perceived that way. It’s not just about the nature and the Earth, it’s about people losing their lives, their loved ones, becoming refugees in other countries and being treated like doormats too. With drastic changes in the climate, thousands of people in developing and under-developed countries are facing the wrath of disasters on a scale that has never been witnessed before. These instances leave them fighting for even the basic of all necessities. As a result, they seek refuge in places they feel are comfortable and well enough to support them and their families. Now finding the refugee centres, facing issues like those of human trafficking and rape, is a whole another aspect to the climate refugee complication. Our paper tries to accurately put forward the realities of the climate refugees, the problems faced by them, the support they have and the support they need.
Vani Dhaka, Kartik Saini, Devansh Chaudhary. Accessing the impacts of climate change on South Asia: A study of climate refugees; the ignored victims of climate change. Int J Geogr Geol Environ 2022;4(1):110-115. DOI: 10.22271/27067483.2022.v4.i1b.89
