A/HRC/17/33 57. The Special Rapporteur would also like to note that in some cases, NAPAs identify migration as an adaptation strategy in itself. This perspective appears in two contexts. First, in some countries migration is seen as a way to reduce population pressures in places with fragile ecosystems. Second, some countries recognize that resettlement of some populations may be inevitable, given the likely trends, and should be accomplished with planning. More relevant would be the second type of adaptation strategy involving migration – resettlement to mitigate the harm accompanying climate change, particularly flooding and rising sea levels. In the NAPA of Samoa, for example, it states that relocation of families is a current adaptation strategy in the village community sector. Potential adaptation activities in the NAPA include assistance for relocation of communities inland. A plan entitled Implement Coastal Infrastructure Management Plans for Highly Vulnerable Districts Project22 envisions incremental relocation of community and government assets outside coastal hazard zones. 58. Regarding destination-country policies, the Special Rapporteur notes that the relocation strategies identified in NAPAs assume that, in most cases, people will move internally in search of safer alternatives. Whether hampered by financial resources, distance, lack of networks in destination countries, or other factors, many would-be migrants do not have the ability to migrate internationally. However, the Special Rapporteur recalls that international migration will not be absent; many of the countries that will experience loss of livelihoods and habitats related to climate change, and many that will suffer from intensified natural disasters, are already countries of emigration with well established patterns of labour migration. The Special Rapporteur notes that the immigration policies of most destination countries are not conductive to receiving large numbers of environmental migrants, unless they enter through already existing admission categories. Typically, destination countries admit persons to fill job openings or to reunite with family members. Concerning humanitarian admissions, they are generally limited to refugees and asylum seekers – that is, those who fall within the definition in the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951, its 1967 Protocol or relevant regional instruments, persons with a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, and membership in a particular social group or political opinion. Most environmental migrants would be unlikely to meet the legal definition of a refugee, as they will be forced to flee because of loss of livelihood or habitat and not because of persecutory policies. This could raise the issue whether a new category of forced migrants due to environmental or climatic factors would be envisaged and subject to protection. 59. Nevertheless, some countries have established special policies that permit individuals whose countries have experienced natural disasters or other severe upheavals to remain at least temporarily without fear of deportation. The United States of America, for example, enacted legislation in 1990 to provide temporary protected status to persons “who are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions”.23 New Zealand has a particular category in its resettlement quota for persons displaced environmentally from Pacific island States, called the “Pacific Access Category”. Other countries provide exceptions to removal on an ad hoc basis for persons whose countries of origin have experienced significant disruption because of natural disasters. After the 2004 tsunami, several States suspended deportations of nationals from countries affected.24 22 23 24 14 See NAPA Priority Project 7: Implement Coastal Infrastructure Management Plans for Highly Vulnerable Districts Project ; at: http://unfccc.int/files/adaptation/napas/application/pdf/29_samoa_pp.pdf. USA Immigration Act of 1990; available at: http://www.justice.gov/eoir/IMMACT1990.pdf. See note 5 above, pp. 374 – 377.