Nearly a third of the population of Pacific island nation Tuvalu has applied for a new visa scheme that would allow them to relocate to Australia.
Australia is offering 280 visas annually to Tuvaluan citizens under the Falepili Union treaty — a landmark agreement billed as the world’s first climate migration deal.
Citizens of the climate change-threatened Polynesian nation are being encouraged to apply as rising seas threaten to engulf the tiny Pacific nation.