In Germany, prominent members of the Greens Party have proposed that so-called “climate refugees” should be allowed to relocate to Germany and receive passports once they arrive.
One of the main supporters of the proposal is Claudia Roth, a long-time Green politician who argues that German passports should be given to those living on small Pacific island nations, which according to Roth, may be endangered because of climate change, Bild reports.
The proposed policy didn’t specify just how many “climate refugees” would be welcome, but the UN has previously estimated that the number of climate migrants could reach between 25 million to 1 billion by the year 2050.
In their proposal, however, the Greens specifically mentioned the World Bank’s figure of 150 million climate refugees coming from Africa, South Asia, and South America by the year 2050. Under the Green’s proposal, all of these “climate refugees” would be eligible to receive a German passport.
Politicians from other parties have heavily criticized the proposal. Responding to the proposal, North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul of the CDU said: “Immigration still poses major challenges for us in the area of internal security. I suggest we take care of that first.”
Phillip Amthor, a CDU politician, lawyer, and an interior expert cautioned against “making climate changes a reason for fleeing because this would only increase the migratory pressure worldwide.”
Linda Teuteberg, a member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) also slammed the proposal, labeling it as a “state-guaranteed world rescue fantasy”. Germany should not function as “Noah’s Ark for the world,” she added.
Source : https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/12/germany-green-party-wants-to-hand-out-passports-to-climate-refugees/
