1st Climate Refugees Arrive in Australia From Tuvalu

Australia will take up to 280 Tuvalu citizens every year amid concerns of worsening climate conditions on the tiny Pacific island nation.

An aerial view of a strip of land between the Pacific Ocean (R) and lagoon in Funafuti, Tuvalu, on Nov. 28, 2019. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The first lot of climate migrants have arrived in Australia from the tiny Polynesian island nation of Tuvalu.

Tuvalu is one of the world’s smallest and remote nations, situated in the central Pacific Ocean between Australia and Hawaii.

Sea level rises and coastal erosion are seen as an increasing threat to the island, whose land mass is only as wide as a road in some parts.

The Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union treaty was signed into being in 2023 and entered into full effect in 2024.

Under the treaty, a special visa pathway was created to allow Tuvalu citizens temporary or permanent entry to Australia and the right to live, work and study.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called it “a groundbreaking arrangement in terms of foreign relations.”

Tuvalu’s population sits at around 11,000 people, and Australia’s intake is capped at 280 visa places a year.

The initial intake is said to include a dentist, Tuvalu’s first female forklift driver, and a church pastor to guide the Christian migrants’ spiritual wellbeing, according to Reuters.

Trainee pastor Maipua Puafolau came to Australia in recent weeks from the main island of Funafuti.

“For the people moving to Australia, it is not only for their physical and economic well-being, but also calls for spiritual guidance,” he said.

Earlier this year, the nation of Tuvalu announced its National Adaptation Plan.

The document lists increasing concerns, such as flooding, salination, severe heat waves, intense cyclones and storm surges, ocean acidification, prolonged droughts and a sea-level rise of 0.15 metres in 30 years.

“One of the most pressing climate change concerns for Tuvalu is the rise in sea levels and the associated projected shoreline retreat resulting from global warming,” the plan states.

Between 1901 and 2018, the sea level rose 20 centimetres, according to Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Sinking Theory Questioned

Some academics, such as Australian Paul Kench, question whether Tuvalu is passively sinking beneath the ocean.

He believes its islands are dynamic landforms that can naturally adjust, grow and change shape over time.

Using aerial data from 1971-2014 (pdf), Kench and fellow researchers came to the conclusion that 73 percent of Tuvalu’s islands had increased in size, 27 percent had decreased, but overall, Tuvalu had gained 2.9 percent in total land area.

Kench explains this natural phenomenon saying Tuvalu’s atolls are built from coral sediment that moves and accumulates through waves, storms and reef processes which all add sand and gravel to the shore.

All of this, Kench argues, can allow islands to shift position and expand, even as seas rise.