SYDNEY — The first climate migrants to leave the remote Pacific island nation of Tuvalu have arrived in Australia, hoping to preserve links to their sinking island home, foreign affairs officials said Thursday.
More than one-third of Tuvalu’s 11,000 population applied for a climate visa to migrate to Australia, under a deal struck between the two countries two years ago.
The intake is capped at 280 visas annually to prevent a brain drain in the small island nation.
Among the islanders selected in the initial intake of climate migrants is Tuvalu’s first female forklift driver, a dentist and a pastor focused on preserving their spiritual life thousands of miles from home, Australian government officials said.
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.
Manipua Puafolau, from Tuvalu’s main island of Funafuti, arrived in Australia two weeks ago. A trainee pastor with the most prominent church in Tuvalu, he plans to live in the small town of Naracoorte in the state of South Australia, where several hundred Pacific Islanders work in seasonal agriculture and meat processing jobs.
“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 in a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo visited the Tuvaluan community in Melton, Melbourne, last month to emphasize the importance of maintaining strong ties and cultural bonds across borders as citizens migrate, Tuvalu officials said.
On Tuvalu’s main atoll of Funafuti, the land is barely wider than the road in many stretches. Families live under thatched roofs, and children play football on the airport runway due to space constraints.
By 2050, NASA scientists project daily tides will submerge half of Funafuti atoll, home to 60% of Tuvalu’s residents, where villagers cling to a strip of land as narrow as 65 feet. The forecast assumes a rise in sea levels of about 3 feet, while the worst case, double that, would put 90% of the country’s main atoll under water.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said 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 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.
Kitai Haulapi, the first female forklift driver in Tuvalu, recently married and will relocate to Melbourne, population 5 million. In a video released by Australia’s foreign affairs department, she says that she hopes to find a job in Australia and continue to contribute to Tuvalu by sending money back to her family.
Dentist Masina Matolu, who has three school-aged children and a seafarer husband, will move with her family to the northern Australian city of Darwin. She plans to work with indigenous communities.
“I can always bring whatever I learn new from Australia back to my home culture, just to help,” she said in a video statement.
