Why climate justice means migrant and refugee justice
What’s the link between climate, migration and refugees?
Climate-related disasters are soaring. In 2024, we experienced multiple instances of climate devastation, impacting communities far and wide:
- The Philippines faced an unprecedented 6 typhoons in just 30 days, killing hundreds of people, displacing hundreds of thousands and impacting millions.
- Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc on the Caribbean and the US's Gulf Coast as the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic.
- In Brazil, 75 people were killed and 80,000 were forced to evacuate due to flooding and landslides.
- Over 100 wildfires swept Portugal, killing 7 people and burning many homes.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. In 2022, Oxfam’s report “Inequality Kills” showed that “a disaster related to weather, climate, or water hazards has occurred every day on average over the past 50 years, with more than 91% of deaths caused by such disasters occurring in low- and middle-income countries.”
Since then, we've continued to witness the hottest years on record. Alarmingly, Carbon Brief, a climate data analysis website, claims that over 71% of extreme weather events across the world are “made more likely or more severe by human-caused climate change”.
People from low-income countries contribute far less to global warming than people from richer countries. Oxfam’s report “Inequality Kills” says:
- The wealthiest 1% of humanity are responsible for twice as many emissions as the poorest 50%.
- Rich countries are responsible for an estimated 92% of all excess historic emissions, far above their fair share of CO2 emissions.
- The damage a person does to the climate increases with their level of wealth.
But people in low-income countries feel the impacts strongly, with climate-related disasters causing mass humanitarian crises like the 2022 floods in Pakistan, which impacted 33 million people, displaced 7.9 million and killed 1,700. This is because many of these people live in areas especially vulnerable to extreme weather, with limited resources to “bounce back”. Climate-fuelled crises are forcing people to flee their homes to seek safe refuge.
When people flee homes they can no longer live in due to climate catastrophe, conflict or oppression, that’s not a migration "crisis". It’s a crisis of justice. And the UK, like other wealthy countries, has a duty to act compassionately and to provide refuge for those affected by our actions – whether that's our climate-wrecking emissions, our extractive practices or our arms trade.
The UK has a responsibility to do better for refugees
The climate crisis is destroying lives and livelihoods. Yet countries that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are already hosting far more displaced people than the UK is. For example, one of the top 5 countries for hosting refugees, Uganda, is facing climate-related droughts, which impact lives and livelihoods (particularly for women, children and disabled people), its food supply and more.
Globally, 71% of the world’s refugees are hosted by low- and middle-income countries, and 69% of refugees live in countries neighbouring their countries of origin.
It's a myth that people in crisis are heading straight for the UK. For those who do, it's often because they have family here, speak the language or hope for safety in a place they feel connected to. Refugees need support and stability – not punishment – yet the government increasingly treats them as criminals.
Dangerous government legislation is threatening refugees’ right to seek asylum
In recent years, the UK government has passed legislation that strips people of their rights to seek asylum.
Friends of the Earth joined over 250 civic society organisations in opposing the previous government's misleadingly named "Safety of Rwanda Act," which aimed to forcibly expel people seeking asylum, including children and survivors of trafficking and modern slavery. Moving them to a country they may have no connection to – and one which the UK’s own Supreme Court ruled wasn't a safe destination – put refugees at grave risk of harm and human rights abuses.
The reality is, deporting people to places where they could face harm or danger is a clear breach of the Refugee Convention and human rights law. It’s not just inhumane: it’s unlawful.
This is part of a broader pattern of cruelty. The Nationality and Borders Act and the Illegal Migration Act have already stripped back access to asylum in the UK. People who enter the UK via “unofficial” ways, such as small boats, are automatically criminalised.
Under these laws, their individual circumstances are ignored. Even if they have a strong claim to protection, they're denied the right to make it and will instead be subject to detention. And the violent far-right riots of summer 2024 targeted asylum seekers in hotel accommodation, demonstrating how toxic and dangerous the situation has become.
The approach of multiple governments hasn't been about refugees' safety, but rather about generating media headlines. Instead of criminalising those in need, the UK should be creating a fair asylum system that supports people to rebuild their lives as part of our communities. Ultimately, government legislation fails to deal with the root problems of forced migration: climate collapse, war and poverty.
The UK is facing a crisis, but not the one some politicians and media outlets are pushing
Instead of tackling the cost-of-living crisis, insulating homes to bring down energy bills and emissions, or addressing inequality, successive UK governments have poured money into hostile immigration policies that fuel the scapegoating of refugees. And the far right continues to grow by exploiting this anti-immigration narrative.
Across the globe, far-right politicians are increasingly being elected, and we're seeing a rise in hate-fuelled violence, including here in the UK. They want us to believe migrants are the problem, but this is a mere distraction from systemic failures caused by austerity and greed.
The reality is that migration isn’t something to fear, it's something we’ve always relied on. Migrants support our NHS and our care services, build our infrastructure and keep essential services running. Studies show migration boosts job creation and helps reduce government debt over time.
A recent study found that immigration yields a net positive contribution of £3.3 billion each year. And in the period between 2018 and 2028, it's predicted this net positive contribution will surpass £33 billion. Yet asylum seekers are banned from working, while funds are wasted on inhumane deportation schemes.
The government and our media have a responsibility to debunk the toxic narrative creating hostility towards migrants and refugees. The far right are quick to place blame on migrants for housing shortages, but in truth they have less chance of getting social housing than people born in the UK.
Meanwhile, this toxic debate distracts much-needed attention from the fact there's currently a shortage of labour across many sectors. Recently, the UK construction industry warned there aren’t enough builders and labourers to meet the government's house-building targets. We’d need another 225,000 additional workers by 2027.
Migrant workers are the quickest and most effective solution to meeting our housing needs. Migrants aren't the problem but rather an important part of the solution, without which this government could miss its pledge to build 1.5 million new homes.
Inhumane language repeatedly used in the media and by some politicians makes it sound as if huge numbers of people are migrating to the UK with dire consequences. But the reality is that just 108,131 people claimed asylum in the UK in 2024, less than 0.16% of the UK population. Every one of these people come to the UK with their own hopes and dreams.
We win when we stand together
From the Nobel laureate and humanitarian Albert Einstein to long-distance runner and Olympian Sir Mo Farah, there have been countless refugees who’ve made significant contributions to the world. Their migrant origins are often conveniently forgotten by people celebrating them or benefiting from their innovations who otherwise perpetuate false narratives about refugees.
Whether they have a high profile or not, refugees bring many positive contributions to society: they enrich our communities and become our friends, neighbours and family. We need solidarity in the environmental movement. We’re all in this together, and the climate crisis is impacting us all. And we have power in numbers.
For example, in 2021 hundreds of protesters in Glasgow were able to secure the safe release of 2 of their neighbours from UK Immigration Enforcement. Protesters surrounded the van in a day-long standoff, chanting "they’re our neighbours, let them go". Campaigners celebrated this display of Glaswegian solidarity, which shows that if you show up, you can make a difference.
Those who must migrate because of the climate crisis aren’t responsible for their circumstances. What’s clear is that we need fair solutions from our leaders, and we need to hold them to account to protect those most at risk from the worst impacts of climate breakdown. We urgently need to fight for solutions that benefit people and planet.
Climate change and unjust systems are forcing people to move. The question isn’t whether they deserve our help but whether we’re willing to build a future where no one is forced to flee, and where everyone can live safely and freely.
