In recent decades, the world as a global society has increased its focus on searching for
solutions to the major environmental issues of our time. This encompasses not only climate
change, but natural disasters and man-made environmental damage. However, the debates about
how to deal with these issues often focus on the problems on a much larger scale, and not on the
devastating repercussions environmental damage can have on individuals in affected areas. In the
wake of an environmental disaster, people are often forced to flee their home countries,
essentially forcing them to live as refugees. Even when nations have legislation in place in order
to aid refugees, most do not encompass environmental refugees. The government of Sierra Leone
would encourage the council to increase attention on how we can attend to this oversight.
Sierra Leone has had experience as a nation aiding refugees, and we are acutely aware of
the necessity of proper legislation. We are still feeling the ramifications of our own eleven-year
Civil War, which displaced over half the total population, and made it necessary for us to
develop effective refugee policies. More recently, our government has worked to aid Liberian
refugees who were forced out of their own country in the wake of the Second Liberian Civil
War, helping to return people to their home country or, alternatively, helping to integrate those
who are unable or unwilling to repatriate. Specifically, our government passed The Refugee
Protection Act of 2007, protecting the rights of refugees within Sierra Leone in response to this
issue.
When speaking about the International Protection of Refugees during his Presidential
Address at the State Opening of the Second Session of the Fourth Parliament, President Ernest
Bai Koroma made it clear that this goal is being taken seriously by the Sierra Leonean
government. President Koroma said that, with immense support from UNHCR (the UN Refugee
Agency), the government has progressed in their “search for durable solutions,” and would
“continue to attenuate the plights of refugees and asylum seekers from other countries.”
Therefore, Sierra Leone stands in support of the protection of environmental refugees, as
well as in support of securing refugee status for those affected by natural or man-made
environmental disasters. While internally, environmental refugee status is not a concern within
Sierra Leone, we recognize that the protection of refugees is a global issue, and we encourage
other nations to join us in working towards permanent resolutions.
Our proposed solution is two-fold; we plan to 1) continue to work with the UNHCR and
support their mission to aid all refugees, including environmental, and 2) encourage and addition
of specific language to the UNHCR 1967 protocol to cover environmental refugees explicitly.
Sierra Leone looks forward to advancing this discussion, and lending our support to the
alleviation of this issue.