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The Refugee Burden Of Proof: Legal Gaps And Future Considerations For Climate Migrants, Aedan Raleigh

Pace Law Review

As impacts of climate change become increasingly imminent and devastating, especially for the world’s most vulnerable communities, climate processes and events have forced certain populations to flee their homes. Climate refugees, also called environmental or climate migrants, describes those displaced by environmental disruption; however, international law has yet to delineate how these individuals fit into current refugee law or other areas of immigration assistance. This paper begins by examining current international refugee law, challenges to seeking asylum, and how this applies, or fails to apply, to climate migrants. I will then explore the burden of proof for the principle of …