As human-induced climate change threatens the human rights of people living in the Pacific, many seek opportunities to migrate to Aotearoa New Zealand. Sea level rise constitutes an existential threat for low-lying island countries projected to increasingly lose land to the encroaching ocean, such as Tuvalu and Kiribati. Coastal erosion, king tides, floods, extreme heat, droughts, and cyclones threaten Pacific Peoples’ rights to life, health, an adequate standard of living, and a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
In this report, Amnesty International documents how Aotearoa New Zealand’s immigration policy framework fails to reflect the needs of climate-affected Pacific Peoples. Instead, it offers limited and arbitrary migration pathways that discriminate, separate families, and disregard children’s rights. In the absence of migration pathways and protections specifically dedicated to people displaced by the climate crisis, those attempting to navigate Aotearoa New Zealand’s immigration opportunities in other areas fall through the cracks. They may be prevented from ever being admitted to the country on discriminatory grounds — like Sam from Tuvalu, who was separated from his parents when Aotearoa New Zealand granted visas for all his family but him, due to his disability. Others fall into irregularity and precarious migratory situations after admission, forced in the shadows of society — like Teretia from Kiribati, who lived in fear of deportation after her visa extension was declined, or Noa from Tuvalu, who struggled securing visas while fighting cancer.
The international community’s failure to act on climate change, coupled with states’ increasingly restrictive approaches to international migration, subjects people displaced in the context of the climate crisis to a double injustice. Aotearoa New Zealand – and the international community – must act now to protect the rights and dignity of Pacific Peoples in the face of the climate crisis, both at home and in their country of destination.