IN THE SAME CANOE: BUILDING THE CASE FOR A REGIONAL HARMONISATION OF APPROACHES TO HUMANITARIAN ENTRY AND STAY IN 'OUR SEA OF ISLANDS'.

By: Bruce Burson, Richard Bedford and Charlotte Bedfor   Posted on 2021-08-16

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report relates to one form of human mobility arising in the context of disasters and climate change. It seeks to build the case for the development of regionally harmonised approaches in the Pacific to allowing the entry and/or stay of non-nationals on humanitarian grounds when disaster strikes, including in the context of climate change.

 

By harmonisation, we do mean standardisation. Immigration laws and policies need not be identical in all respects in each country, but they should include a pathway for entry and/or stay on humanitarian grounds, underpinned by a common understanding of need. Nor do we mean to imply that harmonisation can only be achieved through some legally binding international agreement.

 

We recognise that, mirroring global trends, current mobility in the Pacific in the context of disasters and climate change is mostly internal in nature. While this is likely to remain the case at a regional level,  given climate change trends, it cannot be assumed that cross-border movement will remain at existing levels in the coming decades in terms of mitigating a need to develop harmonised approaches for entry to another country on humanitarian grounds. Further, our analysis of  regional mobility demonstrates that in relation to the issue of stay, the need arises because cross-border movement between PICTs is an existing reality. Read more...

 

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