Assessing Climate Change as a Factor Affecting Asylum Seeking and Refugee Status: A Case Study South Sudan and Somali Refugees in Kenya

Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change according to the United Nations and IPCC (2014). This study investigated the effects of climate change in Africa and its influence towards asylum seeking and refugee status. Information from the selected sample studies indicates that climate change would influence human wellbeing, the ecosystem, and infrastructure in Africa. Furthermore, climate change has prompted displacement of the populace in the regions most affected. The most predominant climate events are drought, flooding, land degradation and desertification. Climate change exhumes a ripple effect that can be far-reaching thus bringing about an influx of climate change refugees who are not categorically recognized as refugees in the international community and legal framework. The 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Additional Protocol alongside regional and national Refugee Acts, have not provided for the climate change refugees to be ‘legally’ accepted in the host countries and therefore there exists gaps and limitations within the legal framework in providing protection of this group of displaced persons. Modern refugee policy is a reflection of realist thinking in many ways: restrictive and externalist. It puts the interests of the state and its citizens first before accepting involvement in what is happening outside its borders. Internationally, nations are not prepared for the coming surge of persons displaced due to climate change events while the change in environment aggravates competition for resources such as water, food and grazing lands. A large population in Africa is directly dependent on agriculture and other natural resources for sustainable livelihood and this is greatly threatened by the climate change phenomenon. The current legal framework does not ‘recognize’ the refugees who have migrated from their countries of origin due to climatic conditions. The focus of the study was asylum seekers and refugees from South Sudan and Somalia living in Kenya and the scope is between the year 2009 to 2019.