Amnesty International

Minister of Immigration

Erica

Stanford

Aotearoa New Zealand government

Dear Minister of Foreign Affairs & Minister of Immigration,

Amnesty International released its report Navigating Injustice: Climate displacement from the Pacific Islands of Tuvalu and Kiribati to Aotearoa New Zealand. After reading the report, I am writing to call on you to establish rights-based humanitarian visas and dedicated protections from deportations to allow Pacific People most impacted by climate change and disasters to move to, or continue living in, Aotearoa New Zealand without suffering from discrimination of any kind. While doing so, it is equally important that you scale-up support for mitigation, adaptation and climate finance for loss and damage in the Pacific to ensure that people wanting to stay can do so with dignity.

Climate change makes pre-existing social, economic and other inequalities worse. This is particularly true in Kiribati and Tuvalu, two low-lying Pacific countries. Persons with disabilities, older persons are some of the group that are disproportionately affected by the human rights impacts of climate change. The main effects of the climate crisis include storm surges and king tides, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion, flooding, droughts, extreme heat and cyclones. These conditions impact significantly the right to adequate housing, water security, food security and the right to health. Ultimately, they impact the right to live with dignity and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

A growing number of people are being forced to make the difficult decision whether to stay or move and try to rebuild a life for themselves and their children. Those who decide to move to Aotearoa New Zealand use existing inadequate pathways including the Pacific Access Category (PAC) visa. This scheme is not fit for effectively ensuring migration with dignity for those impacted by the climate crisis. Ballot systems are arbitrary. Strict requirements become insurmountable obstacles and violate human rights law. Age and health requirements discriminate against some of those most at risk of climate-related harm including people with disabilities, those with certain health conditions and older people while tearing families apart and disregarding children’s rights.

These schemes don’t take into consideration personal circumstances such as the extent to which applicants are impacted by the climate crisis. The lack of dedicated protection mechanisms leads many Pacific People living in Aotearoa New Zealand to fall through the cracks of the system, lose their regular migration status and become at risk of deportation.

Aotearoa New Zealand should suspend deportation and provide access to regular immigration status to people of the countries most affected by climate change. This should include Tuvalu and Kiribati - where sea level rise and other impacts of climate change is a major threat on human rights for entire communities. The same principle applies to groups and individuals impacted by major disasters, such as cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, in the aftermath of such disasters.

It is incumbent upon you to address these issues in a manner that upholds Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Indigenous Peoples’ rights and international human rights law.

Yours sincerely,

Mr.

Winston

Peters

Aotearoa New Zealand government

Dear Minister of Foreign Affairs & Minister of Immigration,

It is incumbent upon you to address these issues in a manner that upholds Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Indigenous Peoples’ rights and international human rights law.

Yours sincerely,

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