Berlin: New Zealand could become the world's first country to recognise climate change as an official reason to seek asylum, a government minister said in an interview on Tuesday. If implemented, up to 100 refugees per year would be admitted to the island nation on a newly created visa category.
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| A child wades through sludge and water on the Island Republic of Kiribati in the Central Pacific Ocean. |
It may appear relatively insignificant, given that the US Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre predicts 150 to 300 million people to be forced out of their homes due to climate change by 2050. Yet the announcement has still stunned environmental activists who have long demanded such resettlement programs, but have been blocked by governments and courts - including New Zealand's own Supreme Court.
Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by Rick Noack - “A New Zealand visa could trigger the era of 'climate change refugees’.”
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