Climate Refugee Crisis in the Age of AI: Legal Challenges, Durable Solutions, and the Need for Responsibility Sharing

Abstract

Among the many severe impacts caused by climate change, displacement and migration are perhaps the most devastating, aside from the direct loss of life. ‘Climate Refugees’ find themselves caught in a double bind. When seeking asylum under Refugee Law, they are often denied recognition as refugees. Although International Environmental Law has begun to address the interlinkage between climate change and migration, progress remains limited due to a multifaceted geopolitical context. A large number of people are anticipated to seek asylum as ‘climate refugees’ in a few decades, and policymakers, scholars and international organisations have been univocal on ‘responsibility sharing’ as the sole redressal. In this context, artificial intelligence could be a tool for gauging the efficacy of climate refugees.

This paper analyses the role of artificial intelligence in determining refugee status and the legal and ethical implications of detecting migration patterns of climate refugees through a doctrinal study of refugee status determination under international refugee law. The initial parts discuss the legal situation of “climate migration” and the minimal recognition compared to the necessity. The second part discusses the integration of AI in mitigating climate risks, recognising and assessing migration patterns and populations affected, as well as the integration of machine learning into refugee status determination, along with the challenges associated with such integration. Climate Refugees are victims of a ‘recognition void’, which has been emphasised in this paper, which establishes the premise on the basis of which the scale of the crisis is being convoluted. Lack of uniform definition would directly impact the discriminatory practices and severity of the persecution. In light of that, the basic fundamental mitigation tool in the scope of collective responsibility in protecting and assisting climate refugees shall be the use of artificial intelligence.