Get ready for climate refugees!

For 10 days, we filmed our new documentary in agricultural lands, in different regions, and in different villages, focusing on the WATER CRISIS together with producers. If you follow my articles, you know I am trying to bring the WATER issue to the agenda.

A major water crisis awaits us!

The world's water resources are facing a problem of not being enough for humanity! Water usage is increasing at more than double the rate of global population growth. The water used in food production to feed the growing population will increase by 70 percent. Due to the drought brought about by the global climate crisis and the significant decrease in precipitation, more than half of the world's wetlands have disappeared. One-third of the world's population lives in countries experiencing water stress.

According to the latest report published by the United Nations, within 6 years, 700 million people will begin to leave the places where they live due to water scarcity. It is estimated that by 2040, one-quarter of children under the age of 18 in the world (approximately 600 million children) will live in areas with extremely high water stress.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees defines this new problem as “Ecological Refugeeism, Climate refugeeism.” It emphasizes that climate refugees will create a greater impact than the refugee problem caused by war. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has decided for the first time that asylum rights can be granted to people in regions affected by climate change. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees stated, “People who leave their lands due to climate change cannot be returned to their countries if their fundamental rights are under threat.”

The European Union is not yet dealing with the migration problem caused by climate change. However, as the damage caused by climate change increases, this issue will knock on the EU's door as a real problem. Because Europe is at the epicenter of climate migration. As a result of flood and drought disasters, it will face waves of migration coming from Africa and the Middle East. Likewise, Turkey is also on the route of climate refugees.

OUR NEW CRISIS; CLIMATE REFUGEES!

The country that hosts the most refugees in the world is Turkey! Our country has also opened its doors to climate migrants for the last 5 years. The number of irregular migrants caught in Turkey is at a remarkable level. In the last 9 years, 1 million 811 thousand illegal migrants have been caught. 36 percent of the irregular migrants caught are Afghan nationals. Among the irregular illegal migrants are also Pakistanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Djiboutians, Eritreans, Afghans, Ethiopians, and Sudanese! Neither the opposition, nor the media, nor the government is yet voicing the problem of climate migrants.

However, those who govern the country know this very well; Turkey, which was water-rich in the past, has regressed among countries experiencing water stress due to the climate crisis and wrong agricultural policies. As long as wrong policies continue in agriculture, which uses 74 percent of our freshwater resources, and as long as industrial waste pollutes our rivers and water basins, Turkey may very soon find itself among “Water Poor” countries. During the filming of our documentary, we climbed onto the gates of the Tahtalı Dam, which meets the water needs of the people of İzmir. The picture I saw was frightening. There was no water at all in the Tahtalı Dam! Mobilization against the climate crisis is essential. Otherwise, what we say “won't happen to me” could happen to us. Within 10 years, we, as Turkish citizens, could find ourselves on the roads as the new climate refugees of the globe.

Let it be on the record!