The movement of people across borders remains a contentious issue worldwide. A high level committee in India is currently examining the issue of demographic changes. The terms of reference of the committee include studying the possible causes of these changes, such as cross-border movement (including illegal immigration), economic factors, and social or environmental conditions. It is required to recommend appropriate policy, administrative and legal measures within a year.A climatically challenged planet will require much more collaboration amongst neighbouring countries. This is not only for the sharing of climate technologies and meteorological information, but also for better handling of movement of people when they are confronted with extreme climate events. It is therefore useful to look at the principles on climate migration developing in different parts of the world.The United Nations (UN)’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) explains climate migration as the movement of people who, predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive change in the environment due to climate change, have to leave their habitual place of residence, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, within a state or across an international border.Mainstream media loosely uses the word ‘climate refugee’ for people who flee from the adverse consequences of climate change in their homeland. But this is not a legally recognised category in the global Refugee Convention (1951). Traditional refugee definitions do not accommodate the new and urgent realities that warrant climate mobility management. And India is not a party to the Convention.The country has a new law – the Immigration and Foreigners Act – which came into force on September 10, 2025. It does not mention climate migration. Asylum laws also do not help in such situations either, as the persons affected may not have the threat of persecution back home. Hence, the principle of non-refoulement can not be invoked in their defence.Free movement agreements (FMAs) amongst countries are an established practice in international law. They are based on the global framework of human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Article 13 lays down that “everyone has the right to leave any country, including his/her/their own, and to return to his/her/their country.”In Africa the 15 member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed on a Transhumance Protocol in 1998. This allows for the movement of herders and their livestock to cross borders in search of water and pastures. Each host country is required to fix the period during which migrating livestock supervised by herdsmen may enter into and depart from its territory, informing the other States accordingly.The India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed in Kathmandu on July 31, 1950 allows free movement of people. Article 7 of the treaty states that “(t)he Governments of India and Nepal agree to grant, on reciprocal basis, to the nationals of one country in the territories of the other the same privileges in the matter of residence, ownership of property, participation in trade and commerce, movement and other privileges of a similar nature.” Though there is no express mention of climate in the Treaty.As per the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2026, in the next 10 years, environmental risks retain their ranking as the most severe risks, with extreme weather events identified as the top risk and half of the top 10 risks being environmental in nature. The South Asian neighbourhood is not unaware of these risks.Every flood and cyclone in neighbouring Bangladesh sees an exodus from its climatically-challenged areas. Handling climate migration will need preparedness on both sides of political borders. Unplanned migration increases vulnerabilities of people and challenges for governments. Legal migration and planned relocation can be the solution, specially when the causes of distress displacement can be anticipated and are identifiable.An unprecedented bilateral agreementIn November 2023, Australia and Tuvalu signed an unprecedented bilateral agreement termed the ‘Falepili Union’. This bilateral treaty entered into force on August 28, 2024. Falepili is a Tuvaluan cultural concept that means good neighbourliness. It means treating your neighbours with the same duty of care and respect as if they were your own. The agreement allows people of Tuvalu “a special human mobility pathway” allowing Tuvaluans entry into Australia.Every year 280 Tuvaluans are allowed to live, study, and work in Australia permanently, with access to Australian social protection. This Pacific Engagement visa is being referred to as a ‘climate visa’. Perhaps the first of its kind in the world. Tuvalu is a small Pacific island nation that is losing its land to rising sea levels. Maldives faces a similar existentialist threat.The effects of climate change are felt disproportionately by countries. After acknowledging this, a Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) was established in 2022 under the financing mechanism of the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change. The FRLD Secretariat is operational since November 2024, but funding commitments from developed countries are still wanting. Global peoples’ campaigns are asking the Board of FRLD to undertake a human-rights based resource mobilisation strategy. As the most climate-vulnerable region in the world, South Asia ought to rally as a group. The findings of the high-level committee could help build the case for much-needed finances for the region towards streamlining climate mobility.Will people’s suffering and the growing inhabitability in climate-ravaged geographies motivate the humanitarian lifting of mobility restrictions by neighbours worldwide? The political climate will perhaps have to change for that to happen.Shalini Bhutani is a senior law and policy analyst based in Delhi.