A third of Tuvalu citizens have applied for groundbreaking Australian “climate visas” – two of the island nation’s nine coral atolls are already submerged and the archipelago could be uninhabitable within 80 years.
The “climate visa” has been hailed as an important response to migration driven by climate-change but has also raised fears that nations at risk could suffer a brain drain, where skilled professionals and talented young people abandon their homelands and seek opportunities elsewhere. 3,125 out of a total population of 10,643 people (according to 2022 census) applied for the random ballot within four days of it opening.
