Future New Zealand Governments may need to examine the case for climate change refugees from the Pacific, he said – but the time for that was not now.
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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.
He added that with this being the case, Teitiota’s children would suffer compared to the living standards in New Zealand.
Mr Teitiota’s wife Angua Erika and their three New Zealand-born children will follow next week.
Ioane Teitiota was placed aboard a plane in Aukland and flown home to Kiribati.
A spokesman for Foss said he had received Twyford’s request on Friday and was awaiting a briefing from immigration officials before deciding whether to intervene.
“New Zealand is returning him and his family to a situation where there is danger from a number of things, such as rising sea levels and pollution of fresh water and the possibility of cyclones destroying the place”.
“There is no employment opportunities in Kiribati, there is population density in Kiribati, there are no education opportunities for the children”. The couple had three kids while in New Zealand. “That of course is something beyond this court’s power and jurisdiction”, he said.
Mr Teitiota had claimed to be the world’s first climate change refugee, but that was dismissed by the courts, and Labour instead asked Mr Foss to allow him to stay on humanitarian grounds.
“We have a set of rules that say you have to stick to those rules otherwise, you know, basically the wheels fall off because everyone goes around the system”, he told Radio New Zealand. “But to claim he is a refugee I think is just not correct”.
The male marsupial became wedged between the car’s bumper and front grilles after it was hit crossing the South Eastern Freeway about 20km south-east of Adelaide on Tuesday night, said driver Loren Davis.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the case was the “canary in the mine”, and there would soon be “a flood of people from the Pacific Islands” because of climate change.
He had argued that he should not be sent back to Kiribati as rising seas threaten to deluge the island nation of 100,000.
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The issue has even caught the attention of the United Kingdom military, with Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti saying earlier this year that climate change would lead to more United Kingdom troops being dispatched around the world on peacekeeping missions and humanitarian aid.
