A Kiribati man kicked out of New Zealand despite claiming to be a climate change refugee was only trying for a better life for his children, his wife says.
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Mr Argent wrote to Associate Immigration Minister Craig Foss to inform him of Teitiota’s past, but he’s refusing to confirm anything.
John Corcoran, a key witness in Teitiota’s legal proceedings, said the family’s outlook is grim, with families already struggling to survive on the island. “But unfortunately he is not unique in that, and we have to be in the most part consistent”.
New Zealand and Australia have turned down at least 17 applications from Pacific Islanders seeking refugee status because of climate change over the past 20 years, according to research by Jane McAdam, a refugee law expert at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
“I am certainly not ruling out that a future Prime Minister and a future Government wouldn’t take that compassionate view, and I suspect actually that they would”.
Labour MP Phil Twyford, whose electorate includes Mr Teitiota’s home in Ranui, this afternoon accepted a petition from a Kiribati-Tuvalu delegation from West Auckland, some with tears in their eyes. “But it would be on genuine grounds that they actually can’t live in their country”.
Teitiota’s latest effort to persuade New Zealand’s highest court fell flat in July, when the supreme court said Teitiota and his family did not qualify as refugees.
Naisali said there were no employment opportunities for the parents or education opportunities for their three children.
She said seats had also been booked on the same flight for his wife and for their three children who were all born in New Zealand since the couple arrived on short-term work visas in 2007.
However, Sharon Beattie said: “Let the man and his family stay.who cares if some think they are over stayers…they have a legitimate reason for wanting to staying…what’s one family compared to hundreds of refugees”.
Mr Foss won’t explain why he decided not to intervene.
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Labour leader Andrew Little said the Government needed to set up a framework to deal with the issue of climate change in the Pacific Islands.
