Majority of Pacific nation Tuvalu seek Australian climate visa

More than one-third of the people in the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu, which scientists predict will be submerged by rising seas, have applied for a landmark climate visa to migrate to Australia, according to official figures.

- 

More than 3,000 Tuvaluans have already entered a ballot for the first batch of visas, according to official figures on the Australian programme, almost a full third of the nation's population. One of the most climate-threatened corners of the planet, scientists fear Tuvalu will be uninhabitable within the next 80 years.

Two of the archipelago's nine coral atolls have already largely disappeared under the waves. Tuvalu's ambassador to the United Nations, Tapugao Falefou, told Reuters on Sunday he was “startled by the huge number of people vying for this opportunity,” and the small community was interested to learn who the first lot of climate migrants would be.