EU Society: Third Meeting (April 11th) > EU Society at KUGSIS

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This session of the EU society began with a short information about the next EU society meeting. The meeting on the 11^th of April had to be canceled since the presenter had to swap their presentation date due to scheduling issues.

The presentation for the third session was held by Sia (Jihwan Baek) with the title “Climate Refugees: Double Whammy of Refugee Crisis in Europe”. The presenter gave an overview of important terms e.g. who is considered a refugee under international law, internally displaced persons (similar to refugee but haven’t crossed border/stayed in their own country), migrants (leaves country without a reason to be considered a refugee). One of the most important documents is the refugee convention from 1951 which defines the non-refoulement principle. The presentation covered aspects and the background of the current refugee system. New challenges and developments in this field are climate refugees who might need to be considered as a new group of refugees in the future. The rise of the sea level, desertification of regions and extreme weather are causes that could lead people to leave their country in the future and become refugees. The EU currently faces mainly conventional refugees. The current system implemented in the EU has many issues and is dependent on the EU-Turkey deal in regards to refugees coming from that region. Therefore, the EU already faces problem with conventional refugees and might face even more refugees due to potential climate refugees.

The Discussion round started with two questions: How should the EU approach the climate refugee crisis? And how should the EU identify and accept climate refugees? The impact of potential new climate refugees was discussed. Some raised concerns that the EU might not be willing to accept a refugee definition that includes climate refugees since the EU is already too burdened with the current conventional refugees. Others also criticized the EU and the current EU refugee distribution system that burdens border countries of the EU. Other member states of the EU who don’t have external borders with third countries are unwilling to accept more refugees in their country even thought they would have the capacity. Another issue that was brought up was how to define climate refugees and how these refugees can prove that they had to leave because of climate issues.

After the discussion, members of the EU society were invited to have dinner together.