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Rabat – A new report from the human rights group EuroMed Rights highlights the growing impact of climate change on human migration patterns in the Middle East, North Africa, and wider Euro-Mediterranean region.
The EuroMed Rights report comes at a critical time, as disasters triggered by climate change and environmental threats uproot millions across the globe each year.
According to data from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre cited by the report, disasters today spur over three times more displacement than armed conflicts and violence. Between 2009 and 2021, every single country worldwide saw internal disaster displacement, compared to just 83 recording conflict-driven movements.
Both sudden-onset catastrophes and slow-burning environmental degradation now regularly put massive populations in harm’s way, as seen recently across the Euro-Mediterranean region itself. The deadly earthquakes striking Afghanistan, Morocco, Turkey and Syria through 2023 left vast human suffering in their wake.
With climate-fueled disasters displacing over 300,000 people internally in the MENA region in 2021 alone, the report warns of a protection gap for those forced to flee warming temperatures, droughts, and floods. It calls for more robust policy and legal frameworks to address this overlooked crisis.
MENA faces soaring climate vulnerability
The Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region stands out as especially vulnerable, as it is the world’s most water-scarce area. According to the report, over 60% of MENA populations already live in high water-stress zones, relying on rainfed agriculture for 70% of food production. With climate models projecting longer, more intense droughts ahead, the livelihoods of millions hang in the balance.
Morocco’s own climate policy, adopted in 2019, describes how the country “is suffering from the regional consequences of climate change.” Rising African emigration has accompanied growing desertification. By 2050, over 19 million internal climate migrants could leave water-scarce rural areas in North Africa for urban centers with better climate resilience.
Politics & policy lag behind the crisis
Despite clear risks, according to the EuroMed report, political attention and policy progress has lagged behind the unfolding reality of climate migration in the region.
Key global commitments adopted since 2018 – including the Global Compact on Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees – have laid out responsibilities around climate adaptation, resilience building, and protecting displaced populations. Yet EuroMed Rights finds halting implementation efforts from UN member states so far.
According to the report, the EU’s major policy packages – the European Green Deal and New Pact on Migration – also lack coherence in tackling climate and human movement. While acknowledging environmental threats can multiply migrant vulnerability, their focus stays narrow, on tightened border control over expanding protection pathways.
In this context, the report outlines that some EU aid goes more towards externalizing Europe’s own migration objectives more than climate-sensitive development.
Legal protection remains weak across MENA
With the MENA region not party to major refugee protection instruments, the report contends that a climate-updated regional framework is badly needed.
However, 30 years of political tensions among Arab league states have stymied an amended Arab Refugee Convention, with its proposed inclusion of climate factors, from ever being ratified since 1994. This leaves displaced groups in most MENA states relying on a patchwork of national asylum policies, if they exist.
From this fragmented landscape, Morocco stands as a rare exception trying to get ahead of this issue, the report notes.
Under its 2019 climate policy, the Kingdom describes how the adverse effects of climate change have already “prompted increased international migration” as a regional consequence across the Mediterranean from harder-hit areas like the Sahel. Morocco aims to approach this consequence through “integrated and proactive strategy” based on realities inside the country.
Already, over 52,000 previously undocumented migrants have received residency permits under programs regularizing immigrants vulnerable to climate factors.
Gaps & opportunities across the EuroMed space
While spotlighting challenges of data gaps and policy coordination, the EuroMed Rights report also maps emerging practices that could point the way forward across the region.
Canada, Finland, Italy and other nations have set up temporary protections for those displaced by disaster that could inspire wider reform. Regional African treaties around refugee rights also demand a more dynamic interpretation in the age of climate crisis.
Warning that climate impacts in the Euro-Mediterranean have been “overlooked,” the human rights authors argue only joint efforts between origin, transit, and destination states can lead to positive outcomes.
The report closes with a slate of recommendations tailored to EU institutions, member states like Morocco, civil society groups and beyond – all aimed at driving more inclusive, rights-based approaches to the protection needs of millions set adrift by climate change.
