The Impact of Climate Change on Statelessness in the Southern African Region example, under section 32 of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002, such persons could be considered illegal foreigners and will be subject to detention and deportation. These individuals, therefore, may be displaced across borders by the operation of the laws of South Africa. For such persons to be deported, their nationality must be determined. The lack of documentation makes this process more difficult. Should a person in such a scenario in South Africa claim to be a citizen of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh embassy will be called on to conduct a verification process to confirm the person’s nationality. Should the embassy declare such a person to not be their citizen, the person would become stateless. The question then becomes, where these persons would be deported to. (c) Rapid-onset disasters A rapid-onset disaster or weather event can take many forms, such as flooding and tropical cyclones. The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has shown that due to climate change, rapid onset disasters have increased in both frequency and severity and that this trend is likely to continue.55 A recent study prepared for the Centre for Environmental Rights found that Southern Africa is particularly vulnerable to these disasters.56 For instance, during one weekend in April 2022, some areas of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa received months’ worth of rainfall in only one day. This severe rainfall caused mudslides and flooding that destroyed homes and infrastructure. This has been dubbed one of the worst weather storms in South Africa’s history. Over three hundred persons lost their lives and thousands more lost their homes as a result of extreme rainfall and flooding.57 Similarly, Mozambique has borne the brunt of multiple rapid-onset disasters, such as heavy rainfalls and flooding. In 2019, Tropical Cyclones Idai and Kenneth made landfall in Mozambique, resulting in hundreds of deaths and displacing over two million people. Likewise, the impacts of Tropical Cyclones Idai and Kenneth were felt in Tanzania while other tropical cyclones of 1872 and 1952, Tropical Cyclones Fantala and Jobo of 2016 and 2021 respectively, were recorded in both Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania.58 Due to these tropical cyclones, people became homeless while Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report ‘Regional Fact Sheet – Africa’ 2021, available at https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/factsheets/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Regional_Fact_Sheet_Africa. pdf, accessed on 17 May 2022. 56 Robert Scholes & Francois Engelbrecht ‘Climate impacts in southern Africa during the 21st century, Report for the Centre for Environmental Rights’ September 2021 at 4, Global Change Institute at the University of Witwatersrand, available at https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Climate-impacts-in-South-Africa_Final_September_2021. FINAL_.pdf, accessed on 27 September 2022. See also Lere Amusan & Oluwole Olutola ‘Addressing climate change in Southern Africa’ (2016) 72 Indian Quarterly at 395. 57 BBC ‘Durban floods: South Africa floods kill more than 300’ available at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61092334, accessed on 14 April 2022. 58 Kombi Hamad Kai, Mohammed Khamis Ngwali & Masoud Makame ‘Assessment of the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Fantala to Tanzania coastal line: Case study of Zanzibar’ (2021) 11 Atmospheric and Climate Sciences at 245. 55 103