Fragmented Protection: A Critical Analysis of the Legal Gap between International Refugee Law and Local Governance Implementation in Climate-Vulnerable Coastal Regions of South Asia

Abstract

Climate displacement is becoming a serious problem, particularly in the coastal areas of South Asia, where climate risks like cyclones, floods, and rising sea levels are causing millions of people to migrate. Even though the threat is on the rise, the protection gap has become very wide, as international law on refugees is not designed to recognize climate displacement, and local governance systems are characterized by a lack of resources and disjointed policies. This paper examines the policy, legal, and governance gaps to climate displacement protection in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka through a qualitative comparative policy research study of secondary data materials, including the law, policy frameworks, and institutional reports. The results indicate that legal invisibility, institutional fragmentation, and policy incoherence are factors that create weak protection mechanisms for the displaced populations. The study suggests that to provide comprehensive protection to the climate migrants in South Asia, a framework of regional climate displacement needs to be developed, the local government should be empowered, and that climate migration should be entailed in the international law of refugees in the country.