Over a third of people on sinking Tuvalu seek Australia’s climate visas
More than a third of the inhabitants of the tiny Nation of the Pacific of Tuvalu, which scientists predict will be overwhelmed by the on the rise, asked for a historic climate visa to migrate in Australia, according to official figures.
Tuvalu’s ambassador to the United Nations Tapugao Falefou, he was “surprised by the large number of people on Sunday for this opportunity”, and the small community was interested in learning who would be the first share of climate migrants.
Tuvalu, one of the most risky countries of climate change, which, according to experts, increases sea level, has a population of 11,000 inhabitants out of its nine atolls dispersed in the Pacific between Australia and Hawaii.
Since the candidates for the Australian visa lottery opened this month, 1,124 people have registered, family members carrying the total of the visa search at 4,052 under the bilateral climate and the safety treaty.
Applications close on July 18, with an annual ceiling of 280 visas designed to guarantee migration to Australia does not cause Tuvalu’s brains to flight, officials said the treaty was announced in 2023.
The visa will allow Tuvalu residents to live, work and study in Australia, accessing the health benefits and education on the same basis as Australian citizens.
“The move to Australia under the Treaty of the Union of Falespili will somehow provide additional funds to families that remain,” said Falefou.
By 2050, NASA scientists project daily tides will overwhelm half of the main atoll of Funafuti, which houses 60% of Tuvalu residents, where the villagers cling to a strip of land as narrow as 65 feet. This forecast requires an increase of 1 meters of sea level, while the worst of cases, double, would put 90% of Funafuti underwater.
Tuvalu, whose average elevation measures only 6 7 inch feet, has increased in the 6 -inch sea level in the past three decades, once and a half the world average. He built 7 hectares (17 acres) of artificial lands, and plans more, which, according to her, will remain above the tides until 2100.
