Description
Latin American countries treat refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in different ways, particularly those who flee from environmental degradation or climate change. There are not regional standard rules, policies, or initiatives to recognise and protect them. Brazil, for instance, has two different regimes. Firstly, the 1997 Brazilian Refugee Law, that has enlarged the 1951 Refugee Convention definition to include displaced persons for grave and generalised human rights violation as refugees. And, the 2017 Migration Law, that may grant temporary resident visa for humanitarian reasons, including displaced for natural disasters. It means that Brazil recognises internationally environmentally displaced persons (EDPs), under the new 2017 Migration Law, with the option to apply for humanitarian visa, whilst environmentally IDPs remain invisible, without legal protection. This hybrid regime has culminated at difficulties at hosting and integration steps. The research question is: To what extent do some Latin American countries’ regimes for the recognition of EDPs, be they international or internal, lead to protection, in comparison with Brazil? The author has applied Bett´s regime stretching at the implementation level (2010), under a network society communicative model, to recognise them and give due protection (Pacífico, 2022).
