Amnesty International – Discriminatory migration system fails Pacific People facing climate change and disasters

The report, Navigating Injustice: Climate Displacement from the Pacific Islands of Tuvalu and Kiribati to Aotearoa New Zealand, exposes how Aotearoa New Zealand’s lottery-based migration schemes for those living in Pacific Island Countries affected by climate change and other disasters exclude people based on their age, disability and health conditions, violating international human rights law. It also explores the stories of the Pacific People who are left with little choice but to “overstay” their visas in Aotearoa New Zealand and remain at risk of deportation.

Amnesty International’s recommendations to the Aotearoa New Zealand Government are to help people to migrate with dignity or, if they choose, to stay on their islands with dignity. This includes establishing rights-based humanitarian visas for people impacted by climate change and disasters that prioritise those who are unable to meet the existing immigration requirements, suspending all deportations to Tuvalu and Kiribati, ensuring migrations laws are non-discriminatory, ensuring the right to an adequate standard of living for all people with irregular migration status, rapidly phasing out all fossil fuel use and scaling up funding for climate adaptation, mitigation, loss and damage.

Fala Haulangi grew up on Nanumea, in Tuvalu, and migrated to Aotearoa New Zealand in 1989. She said, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. The Government can do it. Why don’t we start now, so we’ve got a clear pathway for people to come here? So they don’t have to live here and look around and be scared because they’re not permanent residents. So when they go see a doctor, they don’t have to keep piling up all this debt.

“It’s not fair at all. Quite a lot of my people want to come here, but at the same time, they don’t want to leave their loved ones back home. Put yourself in their place. Are you really going to abandon your loved ones back home? Your disabled mother, or brother, or sister, or child?

“To me, sometimes we need to have a deeper look at ourselves. The question is, where’s the human heart here? Who’s going to look after my parents, who are elderly? But at the same time, I want to have a better future for my children.”

Over recent years, as climate change and disasters deepen social inequalities and economic hardship across the Pacific, many have felt their best option is to migrate. For many Tuvaluans and I-Kiribati, Aotearoa New Zealand is the most viable destination given the countries’ close historic and cultural ties.

However, Aotearoa New Zealand’s migration pathways do not consider the effects of climate change and disasters. This includes the Pacific Access Category Resident Visa (PAC), which provides permanent residency to a limited number of nationals of Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tonga and Fiji.

Charles Enoka Kiata grew up on Tarawa, in Kiribati, and migrated to Aotearoa New Zealand through the PAC scheme in 2002. Charles said, “People from Kiribati can come to New Zealand through work visas, study visas, on medical grounds, and through the PAC and the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) schemes.

“But our people are facing the threat of climate change. I would like to see a fair pathway towards migration under these climate impacts. A pathway that respects the integrity and the culture of our people.”

The PAC scheme is only available to people between 18 and 45 years of age, who can secure a job offer and prove they have an “acceptable standard of health”. This excludes anyone with impairments that are associated with a disability, as well as anyone living with certain medical conditions perceived to represent a cost for Aotearoa New Zealand.

Amnesty International met with several individuals with disabilities and their families, who were separated because of the visa requirements.

Alieta (not her real name), a teacher and mother from Tuvalu with a visual impairment, had to remove her name from her family’s PAC application to enable her six-year-old daughter and husband to go to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2016. She has been separated from them ever since.

Talking about the impact of climate change, Alieta explained: “When the high tide came, the whole road and the house flooded (…) that’s why I want to move away from the sea.” She said that she agreed to her daughter going to New Zealand because she wants a better life for her, even though she finds it very hard to be apart.

“In the beginning I was not angry at New Zealand. I kept on asking for a visa… But I am sad for my daughter. I didn’t want to be separated from my daughter. It is hard on children.”

The climate crisis threatens a host of human rights, including the right to life, health, an adequate standard of living and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. People with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis and face increased risks during climate-induced extreme weather events.

Pakilau Manase Lua was born in Tonga and migrated to Aotearoa New Zealand in the mid-1970’s. Manase said, “Pacific people are wearing the cost of industrialisation. Our lands are disappearing. And that’s not our fault.

“Humanity deserves a place to be humans. And you can’t be a human and live and thrive if your islands are under threat.

“Within our Pasifika communities, there is a group that is hit even more. People with disabilities, people who have chronic health disease, they have a really, really tough time getting here.”

Tuvalu and Kiribati – on average two metres above sea level – are particularly exposed to the effects of sea level rise. Coastal erosion, floods and droughts, as well as water and soil contamination and salinisation, dramatically limit the availability of drinking water and land to grow food and build homes. This is having a severe impact on people’s health, particularly older people and those living with disabilities.

Aleki, who lives with her husband, her four children and her sister’s family in Funafuti, Tuvalu’s capital, told Amnesty International that obtaining clean drinking water has become a challenge: “We take buckets and go to the government building for filtered water every day for drinking.”

Soil contamination from salty water, which renders it unusable for growing most crops, is such an issue in Kiribati that the island is now nearly entirely dependent on imported food, which is often limited in variety and prohibitively expensive.

A 56-year-old I-Kiribati woman told Amnesty International: “In Kiribati you hardly find good food. You can find only rice and canned stuff. You don’t have vegetables or stuff like that. We don’t grow our food at home. There are heat waves, droughts and king tides and they have destroyed all these plants.”

The situation is also precarious for people who manage to reach Aotearoa New Zealand and fall into irregular status after their visas expire. With no access to dedicated protection mechanisms, those in this situation live with the constant fear of deportation, and are unable to access public services, including healthcare and education.

Under international human rights law, everyone has the right to be protected against forcible removal to a place where they would be at real risk of serious human rights violations, including due to climate change and disasters. The International Court of Justice clearly reaffirmed this in its July 2025 Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change.

Amnesty International is calling on Aotearoa New Zealand to urgently reform its immigration policies to align with a rights-based approach to climate displacement. In doing so, the government must develop and implement policies consistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

Manase said, “I’m a child of the Dawn Raids. The government unfairly targeted Pacific people. A better solution would have been about providing a pathway to residency for these people.

“The governments of this world, particularly in our industrialised nations and more developed countries, have an opportunity to do the right thing. So I want to put a challenge out, a wero. I’m asking and pleading governments to please remember your humanity when it comes to people. What a history and a legacy that will be for our future generations, if they knew this generation cared enough to do that.”

The report details how communities have shown extraordinary resilience, pursuing adaptation and mitigation strategies to safeguard human rights and guarantee that people can remain on their lands. However, the scale and urgency of the threat requires far greater international cooperation and support. And many people struggling to get by in places where it is increasingly hard to live a dignified life see migration as a necessary part of adaptation.

Jacqui Dillon, Executive Director of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand, said, “It is a stark injustice that Aotearoa New Zealand is a high income, high emitting country, failing to do the right thing to help our Pasifika whānau stay on their islands or migrate with dignity.

“We have both a duty of care and a debt of gratitude owed. For decades, Aotearoa New Zealand has profited from industry and manufacturing built on the backs of people from across the Pacific. Their immense contribution, the richness of their cultures, and their economic and social participation must be honoured by our government through provision of not only economic investment but humanitarian pathways enabling choice and human dignity.

“We may have apologised for the Dawn Raids, but in 2025, our treatment of Pacific People remains shockingly inhumane. Right now, it’s important that not only Amnesty International, but every New Zealander stand alongside them in this fight for justice.”