Environmental Induced Migration and its Effects in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries due to climate change. Natural disasters hit Bangladesh almost every year and cause much destruction to the lives and livelihoods of people, especially in the coastal areas, and render huge damages to the national economy. It has long been recognized that the environmental factors have an impact on migration, except until recently the issue received considerable attention within mainstream debates about the movements of people, both within and between states. One of the major challenges of environmental degradation in Bangladesh is climate-induced migration, i.e. mass movements of people especially from rural to urban areas. The security threats of internal migration are enormous. Climate-induced migration creates severe non-traditional security threats including massive displacement, food insecurity, water crisis, unemployment, which often lead to internal conflicts in Bangladesh. It has also become a major policy concern and a subject of a heated public debate in Bangladesh when more than 50 million people still live in extreme poverty line in Bangladesh belonging to remote and ecologically fragile parts of the country. Consequently, a large number of its people are on the verge of great security threats. If the security threats are not properly addressed with sufficient adaptation mechanism strategies, the crisis can lead to major human security threats in Bangladesh. One of the major issues of concern is that despite having severe challenges, Bangladesh lacks adequate adaptation and disaster management mechanism policies to combat the security threats.
Loss and Damages of environmental migration:
In the post-cold war era, as in the period after the first and Second World War, forced population displacements have proven to be a prominent consequence of the demise of old ideologies, the collapse of existing empires and the formation of new states. Large-scale displacement of people may also prompt other states and regional organizations to deploy their armed forces. Whether such action is taken with or without the consent of the country concerned and whether it is prompted by humanitarian or strategic considerations, it inevitably has an important impact on the local balance of political and military power.
In the case of Bangladesh and environmental internally displaced persons the losses could be described under these subheadings:
Economic threat:
According to a Guardian report every day some 2000 people moved into Dhaka the capital city of Bangladesh because of earth changing climate which leads to cyclones, drought, floods. The economic threat is growing because of speedy internally displaced persons in the urban arrears of the country
Drug & Human Trafficking:
People living in slum areas are mostly daily labourers and their children’s are mostly street children’s and baggers. This generation is highly vulnerable and they are involving with the local drug dealers and mafia gangs. Some girls are forced to do prostitution and human trafficking is also happening. Internally displaced persons are not economically solvent and that leads the internal security threats.
Health insecurity:
Health security is another aspect that is affected because of environmental displacement. The displaced persons have no healthy place to live in slum areas the services are very limited, affordable formal primary health care services are also scarce and provided by nongovernmental organizations working on a project basis. Slum dwellers are having low-cost treatments for a general range of illness including fever. In the health sector, the reproductive tract infections are common and sexually transmitted diseases. Another situational analysis on slums in Dhaka city by saving the children in 2014, estimated that two in every five cases of people experiencing illness sought treatment from pharmacies.
Food insecurity:
According to FAO report, during the last two decades, 200 million have been lifted out of hunger and the prevalence of chronic malnutrition in children has decreased from 40 to 26 per cent worldwide.
Environmental vulnerability leads the food insecurity. The agricultural sector affected most because of climate change and change in weather. Sea-level rise affects the livelihoods in coastal areas and river deltas. Melting glacial is also affecting the quantity and reliability of water available and change patterns of flooding and drought. Food availability, food access, food utilization and food stability affected by climate change.
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