Climate-Induced Displacements and Refugee Governance: Policy Challenges in South Asia
Keywords:
Climate Change, South Asia, Environmental Shocks, Displacement Strategies, 1951 Refugee ConventionAbstract
South Asia faces an expanding range of climate change-related hazards, including cyclones, floods, droughts, landslides, heatwaves, and sea-level rise, that are increasingly driving population movement within and across borders. Climate-induced displacement has risen sharply in recent years, with Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan experiencing the highest levels of human mobility triggered by environmental shocks. Yet people uprooted by climate impacts are not protected under the 1951 Refugee Convention, leaving a major gap in legal and institutional safeguards. This paper examines emerging patterns of climate-driven mobility in the most vulnerable South Asian States and evaluates the governance responses required at national, regional, and international levels. Key challenges include the absence of legal recognition for climate-displaced persons, limited financing for long-term solutions, difficulties in planned relocation, weak information systems, and inadequate regional cooperation. The study proposes a policy roadmap that calls for national displacement strategies, the integration of mobility into climate adaptation planning, bilateral protection arrangements, anticipatory action systems, and strengthened financing for loss and damage. Implementing these measures would help shift the region’s approach from reactive disaster response to a more proactive, rights-based, and predictable framework for governing climate-related mobility.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Dr. Humera Akhtar, Ateeqa Saif, Sheikh Arslan Zafar, Peshmina Maqsood (Author)
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