Colombia's climate migration draft law hailed as 'life saver'
Colombian bill recognizing those displaced by climate-fueled disasters, from floods to drought, could be first for Latin America.
- Colombia debates bill on displaced by climate change
- Draft law is first of its kind in Latin America, Caribbean
- Climate migrants globally lack legal protection and rights
BOGOTA - People in Colombia who are uprooted within the country due to the impacts of climate change could receive legal recognition under a landmark climate migrant bill that this week cleared the first hurdle in Congress.
From fishing communities having to abandon their coastal villages on Colombia's Pacific Coast as sea levels rise to families losing their homes to landslides triggered by heavy rains, the draft law covers climate change-fueled displacement.
If passed, it would be the first such law in Latin America and the Caribbean, a region where up to 17 million people could become climate migrants by 2050, the World Bank estimates.
As extreme weather events linked to climate change become more common and severe, the issue of how to protect people forced to move within their own country or across borders is becoming ever more urgent for governments around the world.
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