Australia - climate asylum - Tuvalu's citizens / L’Australie - l’asile climatique - citoyens de Tuvalu

Fr Francois Grossin sm, New Caledonia, sent this recent news:         Traduction française : voir ci-dessous

Australia offers climate asylum to Tuvalu's citizens

On 9 November 2021, Tuvalu's Minister of Foreign Affairs sent a video to be broadcast at a UN climate summit. In the clip, Simon Kofe was found with water up to his thighs, begging for help as a photographer of APF captured the event on film.

Canberra has announced that it will offer residents of Tuvalu, an archipelago particularly threatened by rising sea levels, "special" rights to settle and work in Australia, in a treaty made public by the two countries on Friday 10th November.

"We believe that the people of Tuvalu deserve the choice to live, study and work elsewhere, as climate change worsens," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Tuvalu counterpart Kausea Natano said in a joint statement on Friday.

The treaty provides for "special" rights for arrivals but also defence sections, committing Australia to come to Tuvalu's aid in the event of an invasion or natural disaster.

Tuvalais will be able to benefit from "access to Australian services that will allow them mobility in dignity", the text says.

Uninhabitable in 80 years

The small archipelago and its population of 11,000 are among the nations most threatened by climate change and rising sea levels.

Two of its nine atolls have already been largely submerged, and experts estimate that Tuvalu will be completely uninhabitable within 80 years.

In October, Natano told AFP that the archipelago risks "disappearing from the face of the earth" if no drastic measures are taken.

The treaty also aims to allow the Tuvalans to "preserve the deep ancestral ties" that unite them to their land and the sea.

However, he acknowledges that action is coming late.

'A big step forward'

Australia's trade dependence on coal and gas exports, polluting economic items, has long been a stumbling block with its Pacific neighbors, which are already bearing the brunt of the consequences of climate change, including rising sea levels and more extreme weather.

The treaty can be seen as a strategic victory for Canberra, which intends to expand its influence in the ocean in the face of China's growing presence.

Kiribati and the Solomon Islands, for example, have turned to Beijing in recent years. Tuvalu remains opposed to this by continuing to diplomatically recognize Taiwan.

Natano said the treaty represents "hope" and a "big step forward" for regional stability.

The Treat was ratified on Friday 17^th November: Tuvalu residency and security treaty: what is it and why is Australia doing it? Read more here.

• A Marist Connection with Tuvalu - Fr Camille Desrosiers sm

Fr Kamilo, as known in the Tuvalu islands, formerly the Ellice islands, made up of 9 atolls, which gained its independence from the British crown in 1978, gets an unique curriculum vitae with 25 years of missionary life in that tiny tiny Mission land of 9.000 inhabitants, lost in the vast Pacific Ocean, where he arrived in 1986 from Samoa, to take care of a flock of 26 Catholics, looked after by his immediate predecessor, bishop Rodgers sm – NZ/Tonga, the first Ecclesiastical Superior of the Mission Sui juris established in December 1985, who had to return to New Zealand in March the following year, for health reason.

The islands had been evangelized by the London Missionary Society in the 19th century, which claim nowadays 93% of the total population, affiliated to the EKT, Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvlu. A French MSC priest, Fr Joset, from the Gilbert islands (nowadays Kiribati) had been the first permanent priest there, from 1965 until 1972, before he returned to France.

Cardinal Pio Taofinu'u of Samoa accepted to take over in 1980, and made his first visit there in 1983, accompanied by Fr Camille – Oceania/Canada, who managed to secure a piece of land about 5 km from the capital city, where a Catholic Center called Lofeagai was established and put under a Samoan deacon, then a Tokelauan catechist, followed by bishop Rodgers in December 1985. Fr Kamilo arrived there in July 1986, and stayed at Lofeagai until he retired in 2011, and returned to Quebec, Canada, his homeland, leaving behind him 121 Catholics under Fr Reynaldo MSC's hands.

What was the secret of his longevity in such an isolated place? His faith of course, but also his life of prayer and his love for the people, in Mary's way, as I could see when I visited him in 1991.In some ways, he reminds me Bro. Clement Bonhommeau sm who had been unwillingly the only Marist of the Oceania Province in Futuna island for many years, for the sake of the Mission. Two holy lives we should keep alive in our memories, and be proud of.   [Text: Francois Grossin sm]