New Zealand Deports Man Who Would Have Been First Climate Change Refugee

The man who could have been the world's first climate change refugee just got deported from the country where he had been seeking refuge for the past four years. On Thursday, the New Zealand government sent Ioane Teitiota back to his home island nation of Kiribati, which faces engulfment from rising sea levels and continuous storm cycles. The 811-square-kilometer island nation, located almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia in the Pacific Ocean, is home to just over 100,000 people. Teitiota had been seeking asylum in New Zealand since early 2012, after his family -- himself, his wife and three children -- faced deportation after his short-term work visa expired. Teitiota started off looking for a simple visa extension, but his lawyer pleaded for asylum on the grounds that Kiribati was facing extinction and Teitiota was a climate change refugee. Teitiota's requests for asylum were not successful, and on July 20, New Zealand's Supreme Court threw out a final appeal request against Teitiota's deportation, noting that the case did not resemble a refugee case per United Nations Refugee Agency convention and protocol. "In relation to the Refugee Convention, while Kiribati undoubtedly faces challenges, Mr Teitiota does not, if returned, face 'serious harm' and there is no evidence that the Government of Kiribati is failing to take steps to protect its citizens from the effects of environmental degradation that it can," the Supreme Court's judgment read....
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news