Last month, New Zealand rejected the appeal of Ioane Teitiota, a man who requested refugee status and cited climate change as the reason that barred his return to his home. Teitiota, from the low-lying island nation of Kiribati, was not the first one to launch such a bid, but he likely won’t be the last to be unsuccessful — at least for now.
Noting that Teitiota and his family, who have been living in New Zealand for years, do not face persecution or “serious harm” in Kiribati and that the Kiribati government is doing what it can to protect its citizens from environmental degradation, New Zealand’s Supreme Court ruled to refuse the bid. But the Supreme Court acknowledged the vulnerability of Kiribati and didn’t exactly eliminate the possibility of welcoming those displaced by disasters in the future.
About the author
Anna Patricia Valerio
Anna Patricia Valerio is a Manila-based development analyst focusing on writing innovative, in-the-know content for senior executives in the international development community. Before joining Devex, Patricia wrote and edited business, technology and health stories for BusinessWorld, a Manila-based business newspaper.