By Jane McAdam and Walter Kälin
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In one area, at least, the Compact represents a significant breakthrough: it expressly recognises that climate change, disasters and environmental degradation can drive people to leave their homes. While the Compact doesn’t create new legal entitlements per se, it invites governments to consider creating new visa categories and other forms of assistance for people forced to escape the impacts of floods, earthquakes, droughts, and rising sea levels.
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The Compact sets out key areas for cooperation to improve information–sharing between governments to better understand how and why people move away from the effects of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation, and to ensure those who flee have access to humanitarian assistance and respect for their rights. The Compact also calls on governments to develop adaptation and resilience strategies, which may include migration, and to factor in the potential for displacement when devising disaster preparedness strategies, for both sudden– and slow–onset disasters.
Another part of the Compact urges governments to create more flexibility in their regular migration programs. Humanitarian visas, temporary work permits and private sponsorship schemes, for instance, could be made available for people displaced by sudden–onset disasters. For slower–onset predicaments, other visa options, and even planned relocations, could be appropriate.
The Compact also reaffirms existing law that governments must not return migrants to situations of irreparable harm, and they must respect their human rights. Together, these provisions outline a vision of what needs to be done, and some concrete steps to achieve it.
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