"Tuvalu PM Urges New Legal Framework For Climate Migrants"

"ISTANBUL - Tuvalu's prime minister on Tuesday called for a U.N. resolution to create legal protection for people displaced by the impacts of climate change, saying there was currently no international framework to protect their rights.

Speaking at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, where he made the proposal, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation it was time to start working out how to deal with communities that might have to be moved due to rising seas, water shortages and other threats to their homes.

"Think of a situation where Tuvaluans have to be relocated because no land is there," said Enele Sopoaga, suggesting the low-lying island nation could start disappearing under the waves as the planet warms. "

Megan Rowling reports for the Thomson Reuters Foundation May 24, 2016.