The tiny tropical island selling passports for £80k allowing visa-free entry to UK
Anyone willing to pay the £81,000 price tag will be afforded visa-free entry into 89 countries including the UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
A tiny island in the Pacific Ocean has started selling passports for upwards of £80,000 to raise money for its residents affected by storms. Nauru, spanning just eight square miles, has been the site of phosphate mining for decades and its highest point is a mere 65 metres above sea level.
This puts it in a particularly unfavourable position when it comes to storm surges and flooding, which will only be exacerbated by climate change. Its 12,500 inhabitants must now be moved to higher ground, which won't be cheap. The government came up with the novel idea of selling passports to wealthy foreigners who will now be able to buy citizenship without even having to live on the island.
Nauru's President David Adeang said: "For Nauru it is not just about adapting to climate change, but about securing a sustainable and prosperous future for generations to come.
"This is about more than survival. It is about ensuring future generations have a safe, resilient and sustainable home. We are ready for the journey ahead."
The government hopes that selling passports will cover the costs of relocating 90% of Nauru's population.
Anyone willing to pay the £81,000 price tag will be afforded visa-free entry into 89 countries including the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
Nauru's climate resilience chief Edward Clark said the scheme has already begun. He added "very robust checks" will be carried out to make sure only "high quality" applicants receive passports.
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The island's deposits of phosphate, used in fetiliser, once made it one the world's richest places, but the reserves eventually ran out and left the land unusable.
What's left of the Nauru's land is now being threatened by rising tides at a rate 1.5 times faster than the global average, and increasingly extreme weather events.
It's also currently used to house asylum seekers who enter Australian waters on small boats, for which it's paid £2.5 billion by the Australian government.
