The Turkey-Syria earthquake should act as a massive wake-up call

Our approach – or rather the lack of one – to climate-related displacement needs drastic reform, writes Ibrahim Özdemir

Under international law, climate refugees are not eligible for protection (Bernat Armangue)

A week ago, my home country, Turkey, suffered the deadliest earthquake for almost a century: over 40,000 people were killed, tens of thousands more injured, and over six million were displaced in Turkey and in neighbouring Syria.

Countries rushed to help, pledging millions in aid and flying in crews to assist rescue operations in the rubble of cities – which I am extremely grateful for. But the unprecedented devastation is only a glimpse of what’s yet to come. Ultimately, last week’s events are a long-overdue wakeup call for the international community: the climate refugee crisis is here. And we are far from ready.

In the past decade global migrant flows have doubled, and over a billion people are at risk of displacement by environmental disasters by 2050. Since 2008, climate change has displaced three times more people compared to armed conflicts. Most of these climate refugees come from sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region, already plagued with natural disasters and severe droughts.