The first climate migrants arrived in Australia this week. These migrants arrive in Australia as Tuvalu could become the first country to disappear as a result of climate change. Rising sea levels are gradually inundating this Pacific archipelago, prompting many of its residents to leave their homes behind. As part of ‘first of its kind’ bilateral treaty, Australia signed with Tuvalu, Australia reportedly welcomed the first wave of climate migrants from this sinking nation. In 2023, Australia announced that it would launch these visas as part of a bilateral treaty it signed with Tuvalu. The treaty between Australia and Tuvalu is the world’s first to create a special visa in response to climate change.Tuvalu, one of the countries at greatest risk from climate change because of rising sea levels, is a group of low-lying atolls scattered across the Pacific between Australia and Hawaii.Upon their arrival, migrants reportedly receive immediate access to education, Medicare, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the family tax benefit, a childcare subsidy, and a youth allowance. Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that the climate migrants would contribute to Australian society. The visa offered “mobility with dignity, by providing Tuvaluans the opportunity to live, study and work in Australia as climate impacts worsen”, Wong said in a statement to Reuters. Support services are reportedly being established by Australia to help Tuvaluan families set up in the east coast city of Melbourne, Adelaide in South Australia and in the northern state of Queensland.More than 3,000 of Tuvalu’s 11,000 residents applied for the visas after they became available in June. However, Australia has capped the intake at 280 visas per year annually to prevent a brain drain in the small island nation.
Tuvalu Prime Minister’s message to migrants
Tuvalu prime minister Feleti Teo urged those leaving to keep cultural ties. PM Teo reportedly visited the Tuvaluan community in Melton, Melbourne, last month to emphasise the importance of maintaining strong ties and cultural bonds across borders as citizens migrate, Tuvalu officials said.
Leaving the sinking island
Thousands of applications for Australia’s climate-migration visas show how many Tuvaluans feel they have no choice but to leave their land. This first wave of migrants out of Tuvalu is only the beginning, say analysts, as the future looks bleak for the sinking island.The nine low-lying coral atolls of Tuvalu are under severe threat of climate change, with the occurrence of rising sea levels due to global warming and melting ice caps. During the last century, a rise in 0.2 meters was reported. Rising sea levels are already started causing frequent floods, killing crops, contaminating freshwater, destroying infrastructure, and swallowing Tuvalu’s habitable land.
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