Pabai Pabai, left, and Paul Kabai, right, on Boigu Island in Australia's Torres Strait. Kabai says: ‘I would lose everything; my country, my culture, my stories and my identity’Pabai Pabai, left, and Paul Kabai, right, on Boigu Island in Australia's Torres Strait. Kabai says: ‘I would lose everything; my country, my culture, my stories and my identity’Torres Strait Islanders could be forced to leave their homes within the next 30 years if urgent action is not taken on the climate crisis.
The Torres Strait Island elders launched the court action in 2021, faced with rising sea levels and fearing their communities could become Australia’s first climate refugees. Large parts of the islands could be uninhabitable by 2050, forcing Torres Strait Islanders to leave their ancestral homelands, lead counsel for Kabai and Pabai, Fiona McLeod, said in closing submissions.
Aunty McRose Elu, who is also part of the class action, said she has seen her ancestral homelands on Saibai Island inundated with water over decades.“Now you can see more water than land but people live there.”