How serious is the crisis for environmental refugees?
Maurizio Gubbiotti: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees foresees about 200-250 million environmental refugees by 2050. Our report shows there is a major crisis already. It is really difficult to assess the real dimension of the problem, because a single hurricane can have a dramatic impact on the figures. The tropical cyclone Nargis which devastated Myanmar in May 2008, with a death toll of 140,000, created 800,000 displaced persons. IPS: What are the areas most at risk? MG: All the areas that are already quite poor and fragile. The African continent, and costal areas in Asia, in particular Bangladesh and the Pacific islands. But also the Mediterranean region and Latin America are at risk. And the Maldives islands, where 85 percent of the biggest island is threatened by rising seas, and about 300,000 people will have to move soon. In French Guyana, we foresee about 600,000 environmental refugees in the coming years. IPS: Where will these people go? MG: About
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