Climate Displacement and Legal Invisibility: Rethinking Refugee Law through Bangladesh's Experience

Abstract: Bangladesh is witnessing a rise in climate-induced displacement without corresponding legal recognition. People who are forced to relocate due to rising sea levels, salinity, and river erosion are still not protected by the Refugee Convention of 1951 or Bangladesh's laws. Using doctrinal and comparative methodologies, this research examines the lack of rules and policies addressing this type of displacement. It closely examines international frameworks, such as soft law tools, and national policies, including the Disaster Management Act, 2012 and the National Adaptation Plan (2023–2050). It uses examples from Satkhira and Bhola to explain how climate-driven migration leads to de facto statelessness, legal erasure, and structural marginalisation. The paper suggests two ways to respond: a national Climate Displacement Protection Act and a SAARC protocol that recognises climate displacement in the region. Legal recognition must shift from viewing climate migrants as people who need help to seeing them as individuals with rights that can be enforced. Bangladesh is well-positioned to lead this change in norms and develop a Global South response based on justice rather than exception.