Bangladesh is a disaster-prone country and the impact of climate change subsidizes frequent disaster events resulting in consequences in all aspects of human lives.
The statistical evidence suggests that Bangladesh having around 160 million people is highly vulnerable to climate change and sea-level rise.
Migration, results of disaster is heading for human movement from one climate zone to another for survival for existence.
Some waves of migration have been associated with cultural collapse, as familiar landscapes no longer provided safe or supporting habitats and livelihoods for people.
Migration, whether permanent or temporary, has always been a traditional response or survival strategy of people confronting the prospect, impact, or aftermath of disasters.
Climate change adds a new dimension to community risk and vulnerability. Although the magnitude of these changes may appear to be small, they could substantially increase the frequency and intensity of existing climatic events.
Disaster induced migration has the potential to become a phenomenon of a scale and scope not experienced in human memory.
Its effects on the economy, development, and national budgets could have significant implications for almost all dimensions of human security, in addition to political and state security.
Today, environmental change including climate change presents a new threat to social coherence and a new situation for migration. Climate change will visit urban and rural areas alike with increasingly frequent and violent hazard events.
The geographical location and low-lying characteristics of the country make Bangladesh more vulnerable and susceptible to different natural and climate-induced disasters.
Disaster-induced migration has turned into a serious epidemic and posing a potential threat to human security in Bangladesh.
Let me cite an example of internal migration centering one cyclone event. Bangladesh was struck by a category-4 cyclone (Sidr) on the evening of 15 November in 2007 which resulted in the displacement of 650,000 people.
Over the last decade, nearly 700,000 Bangladeshis were displaced on average each year by natural disasters, as stated by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Internal migrations every so often poses a threat to social stability and lead towards social conflict.
People, particularly disaster victims/migrants are experiencing difficulties due to unemployment, health hazard, growth of population, and excessive price of daily commodities.
Natural and human-induced hazards such as floods, cyclones, droughts, tidal surges, tornadoes, earthquakes, river erosion, fire, infrastructure collapse, high arsenic contents of groundwater, waterlogging, water and soil salinity, epidemic, and various forms of pollution are frequent occurrences in Bangladesh.
Climate change adds a new dimension to community risk and vulnerability. Although the magnitude of these changes may appear to be small, they could substantially increase the frequency and intensity of existing climatic events.
Current indications are that not only will flood and cyclones become more severe; they will also start to occur outside of their “established seasons”. Events, such as drought, may not have previously occurred in some areas and may now be experienced.
The growth of environmental displacement is likely to be closer to about half of the total population in 2020. This is very alarming for Bangladesh.
Dhaka is perceived as the country’s bastion of economic opportunity, but it is also fraught with extreme poverty, public health hazards, human trafficking, and other risks, including its vulnerability to floods.
The statistical evidence advocates that around 400,000 low-income migrants arrive in Dhaka every year. Flooding, intense storms, or droughts, or more gradual but similarly intense changes in regional climates place great stress on livelihood systems.
Migration may be an adaptation mechanism for those with the resources to move early and far enough away from danger.
However, in extreme cases and for those with fewer means to move, migration may be an expression of failed adaptation — an attempt to escape from imminent suffering or even death.
The complexity of disasters today is demonstrated by the processes in which they can combine with and compound each other as well.
In Bangladesh, development-planning, social awareness building, participation in central government’s program, cooperation with NGOs as a development partner, sound disaster management, and judicial and extra-judicial performances reflect the position and status of governance, good or bad.
Hence, disaster-induced migrants as the marginal section of the society are almost deprived of political benefit.
The government of Bangladesh is responsible to cope with local contingencies like a natural disaster, poverty, old age, widowhood, vulnerabilities, sickness, unemployment, employment injury, disabilities, etc. by providing various aid like social assistance and social services.
But the service providing bodies of the government are mainly confronted with some chronic problems. As a result, it has failed to show as a viable institution to render social assistance and social services properly.
Moreover, the functions of the government regarding social security are not enough to address the existing social contingencies resulting in less coverage of disaster victims or disaster induced migrants.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and research organizations and universities could plan a vital role in building a strong scientific basis to make sure that, the trend of disaster-induced migration is well pursued.
People, particularly disaster victims/migrants are experiencing difficulties due to unemployment, health hazard, growth of population, and excessive price of daily commodities.
The ability to earn a livelihood in a given climate and environment is one of the determining factors that potential migrants are concerned about for the future.
What is unknown is how mounting environmental pressures affect migration. Livelihoods are affected by environmental change, especially in rural areas.
Moreover, development activities with women participation are not only undermined through socio-economic norms but difficulties of changing environment make them more vulnerable as well.
Dhaka’s ever-growing slum settlements are a physical manifestation of displaced people. If people have access to facilities and information, they may be less vulnerable to disaster.
Lower levels of education among the poor and limited access to information reduces their ability to deal with disasters. Investigations have been carried out into whether people in disaster-prone areas have access to facilities despite poverty and poor livelihood pattern.
Over 3 million people live in slums and squatters of Dhaka city with very little utility service. Slums and squatters are the informal settlements of Dhaka city that accommodate the low-income group of people.
Conflict (a quarrel, clash, fight) in the slums and squatters are a regular phenomenon. This creates noise and violence that disturbs the city dwellers, particularly the nearby residents, office workers, and schoolchildren.
Besides, many of the slum residents are involved in prostitution, drug trafficking, hijacking, mugging, etc. These activities threaten the social and cultural environments of the city.
What’s more, social conflict refers to the various types of negative social interaction that may occur within social relationships and may include physical violence.
As experienced in the recent past cyclonic events starting from Sidr 2007, there are weaknesses and inefficiency in managing the natural disasters in Bangladesh.
The Government of Bangladesh could not repair the damaged embankments even after more than one year in severely affected districts.
A large number of people had been displaced from their homes. There were no proper and adequate rehabilitation programs for the displaced people.
In addition, there is a lack of accountability and transparency in the implementation and monitoring of response and rehabilitation programs. In many cases, negligence and corruption of the local disaster management authorities had been reported in relief and rehabilitation programs in the recent natural disasters in Bangladesh.
There also needs to be a better understanding of the social and economic losses people experience in order to help structure aid responses, particularly community resettlement.
An approximate number of environmental displacement and predictions for the future Problems associated with huge population movements within the country such as pressure on existing limited resources or living in slums in environmentally hazardous areas which can be a humanitarian issue.
The concept of environmental migration and environmentally displaced persons needs to be included in any future debate dealing with migration issues. In addition, it is recommended that these concepts be included in dialogues on environmental issues.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and research organizations and universities could plan a vital role in building a strong scientific basis to make sure that, the trend of disaster-induced migration is well pursued.
It is important to raise public and political awareness of the issue and its environmental, social, economic and political dimensions.
The government in partnership with mass media should go-ahead to create awareness among the relevant stakeholders to arrive at a cohesive platform to work together to encounter the problems. The role of civil societies is imperative to create social awareness.
There is a need for a framework of recognition of disaster-induced migrants such as in a separate convention or parts of Intergovernmental Environmental Treaties.
The government of Bangladesh is to act accordingly to bring the issue into a legal framework to enable the migrated community to realize human security.
The government should enforce law and order to improve the overall environment of the city through the reduction of anti-social activities.
There is a need to empower the relevant entities in the United Nations system and other major humanitarian assistance organizations to provide aid to environmentally displaced persons, environmental migrants/refugees, particularly when considering the displacement of entire communities.
This can best be achieved if there is an international mechanism in place recognizing this category of individuals. Understanding of strong diplomacy from the government of Bangladesh to negotiate with the international counterparts has the essence.
The government of Bangladesh must make the best use of international forums to bring more resources to take necessary steps before or after disasters to preclude migration.
The final suggestion is that concepts need to be devised and institutions reinforced or created to be able to assist the flux of forced environmental migrants, both at the international and national levels.
At the national level, this could imply strengthening and encouraging various ministries to work hand in hand (e.g. Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Ministry of Social Welfare, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, as well as Department of Disaster Management, etc.) in order to address jointly the issue thus incorporating a multi-dimensional array of competencies and perspectives.
There also needs to be a better understanding of the social and economic losses people experience in order to help structure aid responses, particularly community resettlement.
New policies should also acknowledge the various environmental migrant categories. Institutions in both source and receiving countries should work together to ensure safe, non-criminal, and orderly migration relations.
There is a need for a proper rehabilitation plan following a disaster event to prevent migration from the affected areas.
Rehabilitation program to be launched right after a disaster so that people affected gain the confidence to live in and around their homestead and leverage to restore their lives and livelihood.
Above all, the social safety net program of the Government of Bangladesh has to be expanded covering the disaster victims who have been migrated to urban areas and law and order situation is to be maintained properly at the slum area to prevent social conflict as well as to safeguard their human security.
Disaster induced migration is an issue of immediate policy relevance, because of the potential magnitude and scope of environmentally induced migration.
Climate-related stressors combined with ecosystem change – such as gradual – and rapid-onset events – already drive migration.
Bangladesh Government already has to plan for the relocation and resettlement of affected populations. By means of the requirement for identifying appropriate adaptation pathways for climate change becomes more acute, it is imperative to address how changing environmental conditions affect individual and group decisions to migrate.
A new level of policy and scientific attention to this issue is required to identify the policy alternatives to smooth the way forward and avoid tensions over natural and social resources, to minimize the conflict potential or even potential conflict centering migration.
Besides, the government must should the responsibility to ensure the social security of the migrated people living in the slums for their co-existence and to avoid social unrest.
On the top, the political commitment of the national government to advance disaster risk reduction, as manifested in outcomes, is high and sustained momentum for action should be strengthened.
At the national level, Bangladesh must understand how ecological processes and environmental quality affect the living standards of their populations within their homesteads and prevent them from migrating to the capital city or urban areas.
At the regional level, multilateral dialogue may be necessary about how to address, coordinate, and ease environmental pressures as well as migration that results in part because of climate change-induced disasters in Bangladesh.
The government of Bangladesh must make the best use of international forums to bring more resources to take necessary steps before or after disasters to preclude migration.
Appropriate legislative arrangements for addressing the disaster-induced migration, including the mainstreaming of DRR into governance and development are duly adopted by the Government of Bangladesh. However, the level of enforcement is not up to the mark.
The diversity of challenges and opportunities at the national level for addressing the disaster-induced migration with appropriate strategies.
It is widely acknowledged that well-placed, high-level political commitment with relevant expertise and knowledge can play a major role in building commitment to disaster-resilient nations and its mainstreaming into broader development in Bangladesh.
On the top, the political commitment of the national government to advance disaster risk reduction, as manifested in outcomes, is high and sustained momentum for action should be strengthened.
(Dr. Mohammad Tarikul Islam is an Associate Professor of the Department of Government and Politics at Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. He is the Visiting Scholar of Oxford and Cambridge. Before joining the university, Dr. Islam was serving the United Nations for seven years. As a popular development columnist in South Asia, Professor Islam writes for the LSE South Asia Blog, Oxford Political Review, Cambridge Global Human Movement Blog, Oxford Department of International Development Blog, the Khabarhub, the Daily Star, the Daily Independent, the Financial Express, The Business Time, the Daily Jugantor and the South Asia Monitor regularly)
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