Kiribati islanders to emigrate due to rising sea level

As reported by Mail Online, an entire Pacific nation may be forced to emigrate because their land has started to disappear under the waves. The tide has begun to reach the homes and villages of the locals who live on the 33 coral islands constituting the Kiribati islands.

Anote Tong, who is the Kiribati president, recently announced his participation in talks with Fiji on the topic of purchasing around 5,000 acres of land for his people to live on. The measure could be the globe’s first climate-inspired migration of recent times. All of the Kiribati islands except one are atolls (ring-shaped formations with lagoons), and of these 33 atolls, 21 are inhabited.

However, some of these are already under sea level, while most of the population, or 113,000 people, are now crammed on top of a chain of small spaces of land winding around a lagoon.
Mr Tong explained the impending emigration as the last resort, saying there was no way out. Citizens will have to migrate as the tides have already reaching villages and homes.

There will be skilled workers sent to Fiji first, in order for them to fit in smoothly with the host country's population and offer a positive contribution to the local economy. This first wave will find employment, not live as refugees and seen as second-class citizens, said the president.