{"id":140889,"date":"2026-05-27T14:55:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/the-majority-of-tuvalu-has-applied-to-relocate-to-australia-to-escape-climate-change-what-happens-now\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T14:55:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:55:43","slug":"the-majority-of-tuvalu-has-applied-to-relocate-to-australia-to-escape-climate-change-what-happens-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/the-majority-of-tuvalu-has-applied-to-relocate-to-australia-to-escape-climate-change-what-happens-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The majority of Tuvalu has applied to relocate to Australia to escape climate change. What happens now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

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A Pacific island nation on the front line of the climate change threat is building land to try to hold back rising sea levels.<\/p>\n

But as the majority of Tuvalu’s population applies to relocate to Australia, a haunting question is being confronted: what happens to a country if the people have to leave?<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>
Land reclamation work in Tuvalu’s capital, Funafuti.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From above, Tuvalu looks impossibly delicate.<\/p>\n

Thin strips of land surrounded by endless ocean.<\/p>\n

In some places only a few metres separate lagoon from sea.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>
Tuvalu’s only international runway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In others you’re a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean on both sides.<\/p>\n

But at high tide, the ocean surges through the ground, flooding critical infrastructure, including Tuvalu’s only international airport runway.<\/p>\n

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\"Water<\/div>\n<\/div>
Water flooding through the runway at Funafuti International Airport.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Water doesn’t flood over it \u2014 but through <\/em>it.<\/p>\n

Places that never flooded before disappear into the sea with increasing regularity.<\/p>\n

Now an entire nation is confronting the reality that staying home may soon be impossible.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Australia and Tuvalu signed the historic Falepili Union treaty<\/a> \u2014 a world-first climate migration and economic security agreement allowing Tuvaluans to permanently relocate to Australia through a special visa pathway.<\/p>\n

Between 65 and 80 per cent of Tuvaluans applied for the visa in its inaugural year in 2025 \u2014 roughly 8,700 people of its estimated 10,000\u201313,000 eligible global population \u2014 making it one of the highest migration application rates on Earth.<\/p>\n

The first wave of visas were granted \u2014 280 in total \u2014 and successful applicants have started making their way to Australia.<\/p>\n

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\"Falepili<\/div>\n<\/div>
Falepili visa recipient Tevaogali Elisala with her four-year-old son, Alfred.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the threat, the prospect of leaving home has left many Tuvaluans conflicted.<\/p>\n

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“I don’t want to leave,” Tevaogali Elisala says, nursing her four-year-old son, Alfred, on her knee in her home in Tuvalu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“I wanted to stay back.”<\/p>\n

For Tevaogali, the decision to apply for the visa was never simple. She had lived in Australia as a child and knew what migration could cost. Language fades. Traditions weaken. Identity stretches across oceans.<\/p>\n

She worried that Alfred would grow up disconnected from the world that shaped her.<\/p>\n

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\"Kids<\/div>\n<\/div>
Kids playing on the airport runway at sunset surrounded by vast ocean is a daily scene in Tuvalu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But over time, the pressures surrounding life in Tuvalu became harder to ignore. Housing shortages. Limited opportunities. Rising costs. Flooding. Heat. The sense that the islands were becoming more fragile each year.<\/p>\n

“As we’re trying to build seawalls on the coastlines, the water’s actually seeping in from the ground,” she says.<\/p>\n

“What’s gonna happen in five, 10 years’ time? At this rate, it has to happen.”<\/p>\n

The realities of the sea<\/h2>\n

Across Tuvalu, climate change is no longer a distant or abstract threat \u2014 it shapes daily life.<\/p>\n

Tuvalu, a chain of nine coral islands halfway between Australia and Hawaii, is one of the lowest-lying countries on Earth.<\/p>\n

Its highest point is just 4.5 metres above sea level.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>
Tuvalu sits roughly halfway to Hawaii from Australia \u2014 about 5,000 kilometres away.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\"Around<\/div>\n<\/div>
Around the capital Funafuti giant dredging ships vacuum sand from lagoon floors and pump it to elevate Tuvalu’s shorelines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\"An<\/div>\n<\/div>
An ocean sand barrier on the reef island of Nanumanga, which is only 3 kilometres square in size with a population less than 400.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the past three decades the sea level around Tuvalu has risen by about 15 centimetres and scientists warn that could accelerate dramatically by the end of the century.<\/p>\n