Irregular migration and criminalization of migrants, protection of children in the migration process and the right to housing and health of migrants 2011, para. 48
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The Special Rapporteur would like to remind that the movement of people as a result of changes in the environment is not a new phenomenon. People have been moving in response to changes in their environment, often seasonally, for centuries. However, the link between migration and the environment and its wider interlinkages had been largely ignored by migration experts and policy makers until recently. For example, in the 2005 report of the Global Commission on International Migration, there is barely a mention of the topic. Part of the reason may be the fact that there has been little consensus over the years among researchers as to whether environmental migration is a distinct form of migration worthy of special study. Nevertheless, pursuant to several high-level conferences, expert meetings, and new research published over the last few years, the Special Rapporteur noticed that this issue has taken hold. Experts have been increasingly raising awareness of the linkages between the environment and human mobility and the importance of unifying these issues at all levels of policy dialogue and cooperation - local, regional, national and global.
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Non-negotiated soft law
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Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants