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There Will Soon Be Floods Of Climate Refugees: Will They Get Asylum?
New Zealand is considering creating a new visa for people fleeing environmental disasters brought on by climate change
In 2012, a migrant worker from the tiny, low-lying Pacific island nation of Kiribati tried to become a refugee in New Zealand, arguing that he and his family were afraid to go home because of the impacts of rising sea levels.
The courts didn’t accept that the dangers were imminent–or that they were due to reasons of persecution that are outlined in the international refugee convention–and rejected his claim.
But people fleeing the effects of climate change on Pacific islands may soon have a…