Hundreds of Climate Migrants Arrive in Australia, Leaving Their Sinking Island Home Behind

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 a bilateral treaty it signed with Tuvalu in 2023, Australia welcomed the first wave of climate migrants from this sinking nation on Thursday, Reuters reports. The treaty is the world’s first to create a special visa in response to climate change.

More than 3,000 of Tuvalu’s 11,000 residents applied for the visas after they became available in June, but Australia has capped the intake at 280 per year. Upon their arrival, migrants receive immediate access to education, Medicare, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the family tax benefit, a childcare subsidy, and a youth allowance.

Australian government officials said this first group of migrants includes a pastor focused on preserving Tuvaluans’ spiritual culture as they build new lives in a new home, according to Reuters.

“For the people moving to Australia, it is not only for their physical and economic well-being, but also calls for spiritual guidance,” he reportedly said in a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department.

A rapidly disappearing nation

Climate change poses an existential threat to low-lying island nations like Tuvalu. With its highest point only 15 feet (4.5 meters) above sea level, this archipelago is extremely vulnerable to coastal inundation.

Rising sea levels are already causing frequent floods, killing crops, contaminating freshwater, destroying infrastructure, and swallowing Tuvalu’s habitable land. Funafuti, Tuvalu’s capital and its most populous atoll, has seen sea levels rise about 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) over the past 30 years, according to NASA’s Sea Level Change Team.

This situation will only become more dire as the climate warms. NASA’s Sea Level Change Team predicts Tuvalu could see roughly 28 inches (72 centimeters) of sea level rise if the average global temperature rises 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) by 2100.

Areas of Tuvalu that currently see fewer than five high-tide flood days per year could average 25 flood days per year by the 2050s, according to the analysis.

A rising tide of climate migration

Tuvalu is doing what it can to adapt to this rapid change. Citizens use rainwater collection tanks and central raised gardens to avoid contamination from saltwater intrusion. Through the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project, the government has taken steps to improve coastal hazard monitoring, land reclamations, and coastal protections for outer islands.

Still, the future looks bleak. Thousands of applications for Australia’s climate-migration visas underscore how many Tuvaluans feel they have no choice but to leave. Residents of other Pacific island nations could soon face the same difficult decision as their own homes sink. This first wave of migrants out of Tuvalu is only the beginning.