Climate Refugees – deserving of protection? : A study on climate refugees and their rights to protection

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores the growing phenomenon of climate refugees and their right to protection. The aim is to investigate from the Human Security Approach developed by UNDP, if the human insecurities highlighted covers the situation of climate refugees making them eligible for protection. Thus, the purpose is to examine if insecurities caused by climate change are reason enough to be granted asylum in Sweden and if not, what the debate on extending asylum to climate refugees looks like. The research questions for this thesis are: What insecurities do the Swedish legislation consider grounds for granting asylum that could include the protection of climate refugees? and How do the debates in the Swedish Riksdag and the European Parliament discuss climate refugees and their legal status in Sweden's and the EU's asylum regulations? A qualitative content analysis of the Swedish Aliens Act and the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) revealed that even though all insecurities listed by the Human Security Approach are considered grounds for granting asylum, protection for climate refugees is not guaranteed. Consequently, debates in the Swedish and European Parliaments were examined to explore the intentions of extending the right to protection for climate refugees by including them in the legal framework. While the debates in the Swedish Parliament showed no indication of changing the legislation to include climate refugees, the European Parliament both debated and voted on proposals which sought to extend protection to climate refugees. Nonetheless, it is still not decided whether or not the EU will include climate refugees as a legal status in its asylum system.