Sinking Slowly: For the past four years, the looming threat of sea level rise has had islands nations from The Maldives to Kirabati planning to relocate their populations before the sea overtakes the atolls on which they live.
The small nations are among the most vulnerable to climate-induced sea level rise. As a result, they have made plans to buy land in India, Sri Lanka, Fiji and elsewhere so they can to relocate their citizens if necessary.
Rising to the Top: A Kiribati man is jumping ahead of mass relocation plans. Earlier this month he petitioned New Zealand to give him refugee status from the effects of climate change in his homeland.
Ioane Teitiota, who has lived in New Zealand since 2007, asked immigration authorities to grant him refugee status recently when his visa expired, according to France24. Teitiota, who has three children who were born in New Zealand, cited water contamination, flooding, and his inability to grow crops as reasons why he couldn’t safely return to his home.
"There's no future for us when we go back to Kiribati,” Teitiota told the New Zealand appeals tribunal, according to France24.
Floating It to the Courts: Immigration officials denied Teitiota’s initial petition In June, but he has turned to the Aukland High Court to decide the matter. The court is set to rule this week, according to the New Zealand’s Times Live. If successful, he’ll likely be the world’s first climate refugee, the paper stated.
Although Teitiota’s claims of the difficulties on Kiribati, whose highest elevation is less than 370 feet, are well documented, New Zealand law experts don’t think his case has much merit because laws regarding refugee status are meant to protect those persecuted on grounds of religion, gender, or race.
“This guy doesn't quite fit because he hasn't been persecuted as an individual and there is no harassment inflicted upon him because of his race or gender,” University of Auckland professor Bill Hodge told Times Live.
Teitiota’s lawyer, however, said that if Teitiota is denied by the High Court he’ll appeal to the Supreme Court and on up to UN Human Rights Committee. The lawyer, Michael Kidd, remains hopeful that exceptions can be made to the country’s laws regarding refugees.
“I'd like to think the judge will sit down and say: Okay, well, perhaps the Refugee Convention is outdated and we could tweak here, and tweak there, and bingo, Teitiota would be allowed to stay…” Kidd told Times Live.