The horrible tragedy that struck Haiti a few days ago has shocked the world, due to the immense scale of the damages and human suffering the earthquake caused. Aid efforts are slowly coming into place, but alarming reports of criminal gangs killing and roaming the streets, as well as the lack of water, food and adequate protection is coming through the news wires every minute.

Taking a minute to reflect on this disaster – there is one issue that will emerge soon, if it hasn’t already: where shall all the homeless survivors, estimated to around 3 million people, live in the time to come?

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It is summer time in Brussels and everything is very quiet here as all the institutions are more or less closed. The only thing that is increasingly filling up my inbox are requests from friends and acquaintances who are looking for a place to live, as they are moving to Brussels in less than a month or so to work. As I received my third e-mail regarding this issue only this past week, I decided to put together a small list of places to look if you are moving to Brussels. Please feel free to add more this post and you will help my friends a great deal.

Place du Londres in Ixelles

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Being Norwegian and working in Brussels, I’ve been approached by other international friends many times with the question, when will Norway join the EU, and more recently, will the Icelandic application “push” a Norwegian application as well? Well, here is an attempt on a “short” answer.

Triggered by the up-coming parliamentary elections in Norway and the Icelandic application for EU membership, a light breeze of European debate has entered the political sphere in Norway. The Norwegian Parliamentary elections are held on 14 September, and the EU might, or at least should, become one of the outsider issues.

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I am  happy to announce that a re-written version of my dissertation from LSE last year on environmentally displaced person and the EU, will be published in the European Journal of Migration and Law in their 3rd or 4th edition this year. The final product is written together with the excellent legal coordinator at the Norwegian Refugee Council, Vikram Kolmannskog. Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions.

The abstract:

Environmentally displaced persons can be included in several existing categories of protected persons under international law, but there may be a normative protection gap for many of those who cross an international border. This article looks at protection possibilities within the EU framework and national European legislations. Environmental displacement can arguably trigger temporary protection according to the EU Temporary Protection Directive. There may also be environmentally displaced persons who require longer-term or permanent protection. Drawing on the EU Qualification Directive and case-law from the European Court of Human Rights, one can argue that subsidiary protection should be granted in certain cases of extreme natural disaster or degradation. In less extreme cases, humanitarian asylum could be granted. Human rights principles such as non-refoulement could also be used to extend at least basic protection. In addition, legal labour migration could supply a work force, assist distressed countries and enhance protection of the individual. A strategy to meet the challenge of environmental displacement must also include climate change mitigation and external measures such as adaptation. Most of the displaced persons in the world today and in the near future do not arrive at the EU borders.

Key Words: environmental displacement, climate change, human rights, temporary protection, subsidiary protection, humanitarian asylum, non-refoulement, legal migration,

The Copenhagen summit is approaching and the amount of news articles covering the topic of climate change and migration is increasing, as the last posts on this blog can attest to. The latest news I have caught up on is as follows:

• The renowned NGO Oxfam released a report on Climate Change in the Pacific this week. It is worth a read, as it highlights the changes that are already taking place in the pacific and for the people living there and what must be done. I can recommend the report itself and a short description at the towardsrecognition.org website.
• The Financial Times also covered the issue summarizing some of the debate the topic of environmental migration/displacement and using illustrative examples in their weekend issue some time back.
• The Economist also dedicated a few pages on the topic in an article in their last June issue, called “A new (under) class of travellers“
• CARE International, UN University  and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at the Earth Institute of Columbia University launched a report in May called “In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement“, and is also worth a read:

I do not have time to write summaries of each and every one of these sources, but I hope it can be useful to know about their whereabouts at least.