ABSTRACT

There are currently 175 million migrants spanning the globe (International Organization for Migration [IOM] 2005). The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (2003, ch. 5) estimated in 2003 that 25 million were environmental migrants fleeing natural disasters, including flood, drought, and desertification, a figure exceeding all other categories of global refugees. One researcher, using Essam El-Hinnawi’s classification of such migrants as environmental refugees, estimated that the numbers could double by 2010 (Myers 1997).1