NZ could win global kudos with climate change refugee visa but workable policy tricky, says expert

November 8, 2017

Climate change is set to displace tens of millions of people in the coming decades.

New Zealand is likely to get international kudos if it can turn its proposed new climate change refugee visa into reality, experts say.  

Climate change is set to displace tens of millions of people in the coming decades, and in our region and whole populations on tiny atoll and reef island nations like Tuvalu and Kiribati could be driven from their low lying homes by rising sea levels.

In what could be a world first, the new Labour-led Government is exploring targeted migration through the introduction of a climate change refugee visa.

"The main challenge is that people who are displaced by rising seas from climate change aren't actually classified as refugees according to the United Nations convention," said James Shaw, Climate Change Minister.

New Zealand really is breaking new ground

—  AUT senior law lecturer Vernon Rive |

"The very first step actually is to simply consult with our Pacific island neighbours and to sort of see where they're at. So this is a very complex problem and it's something that isn't going to get solved overnight." 

With future resettlement now a hot topic globally, AUT senior law lecturer Vernon Rive believes New Zealand could win international praise if it can devise policy that works. 

"New Zealand really is breaking new ground by going a little further than what other countries have done," he said. 

Mr Rive says coming up with a workable policy will be tricky and he expects it will be trialled on only 100 migrants a year. 

"How do you select people who might all be suffering in an equal kind of way from climate change displacement? What kind of expectations will it create?" he said. 

Two years ago, Ioane Teitiota failed to get asylum in New Zealand after claiming to be a climate change refugee with no future back home in Kiribati.

One immigration specialist told 1 NEWS he estimates there are at least 3000 people in New Zealand who while officially classified as over-stayers could also lay claim to being climate change refugees if the rules were more sympathetic. 

Meanwhile for the tiny nations of Tuvalu and Kiribati resettlement is still plan B. Their preference is to stay put, helped by a world doing more to stop global warming.

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