Hannah Griffiths
www.foe.org.uk

There are many reasons why people are forced to leave their homes. I want to talk about one of these- environmental refuges.

There is growing forced movement of people around the world because of environmental factors

- natural causes (eg earthquakes)

- human - induced / man-made causes (eg hydro electric dams and infrastructure projects - like pipelines, deforestation)

- indirect man-made causes (eg climate change)

I want to talk about the second and third of these - where people are forced to flee their homes because of changing environmental circumstances that have been brought about by humans, and specifically to look at Britain's role in this.

There are lots of examples that illustrate some of the ways Britain is contributing towards creating situations where people are forced to flee their homes because of environmental factors. For example, we fund large scale dams and hydro electric projects through the ECGD - our export credits agency - and through our contribution to the world bank and these have a direct impact on people, forcing them to leave their homes. Our companies operate abroad to low standards, sometimes fuelling environmental destruction and conflict.

For example, let's take Shell:

10% of Shell's oil and gas comes from Nigeria and the company, over the years has become notorious for its operations there.

Shell, and other companies' legacy in the Niger Delta has been reported as including

Flooding and coastal erosion, sedimentation and siltation, degradation and depletion of water and coastal resources, land degradation, oil pollution, health problems and low agricultural production, as well as endemic socio-economic problems.

And of course, there's Shell's infamous legacy in the Ogoni region. The Ogoni people have campaigned tirelessly for social justice and equality, to protect their environment against the devastation of oil companies and for a share of oil revenues. Their efforts - violent and non-violent - have been met with military force time and time again. IN 1995 Ken Saro-wiwi, founder of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, was executed along with 8 other Ogoni people.

Perhaps some newspaper headlines from over the years can sum the situation up better than I can:

Shell admits importing guns for Nigerian police

0il bringing untold damage to Niger delta

Shell paid Nigerian military

Shell admits to fuelling corruption - oil giant shell has admitted it inadvertently fed conflict, poverty and corruption through its oil activities in Nigeria
This is a story from this month, where an internal Shell report concluded that Shell may eventually have to leave Nigeria if violence escalates

Crude Oil - a campaigner's battle for survival (2003)
Donny Ohia, Agobo people
Highlighted the environmental pollution, degradation and destruction by the oil multinational companies. Because of the political situation in Nigeria, this put his life in serious danger and to flee from Nigeria.
In rejecting his case for asylum, the federal office for the recognition of refugees in Germany, claimed that the struggle defending the rights of the Agbo people from the multinationals is merely an 'ethnic conflict' and does not qualify him for political asylum.

And this, in some ways sums up part of the problem: here we have a Western oil company severely criticised for the way it's operating in a developing country, accused of collaborating with and directly supporting the military who violently suppress any protest about that company's operations. And we have a protestor, in exile, refused political asylum in the West, because the conflict is not considered important enough and therefore he doesn't qualify.

On top of this we have an ever worsening situation of environmental destruction by oil companies, a complete lack of social and environmental justice, making it virtually impossible for people to live on their land.

Furthermore, the oil that shell and others are extracting from Nigeria and that is consumed largely here in the West is driving climate change, which has already forced millions of people to leave their homes and with many, many more millions of climate refugees predicted over the next 50 years.

So I'm here because I think it's important to make the connections, to think about the bigger picture, and this is what the Refugee Project, in some small way, is setting out to do.

 

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