MAJURO/MARSHALL ISLANDS: A tiny central Pacific community, forced to evacuate their homes because of US nuclear testing, are now demanding refuge in the US as they face a new threat from climate change.
USA News "We want to relocate to the US," Nishma Jamore, mayor of the atoll of Bikini, said on the weekend as Pacific waters continued to eat away at the small Kili and Ejit islands in the far-flung Marshall Islands archipelago. Jamore heads a community of about 1,000 islanders who have lived in exile on the islands for decades because their original homeland of Bikini remains too radioactive for resettlement.
There were 24 nuclear tests conducted on the atoll in the 1950s, including "Bravo", the largest hydrogen bomb detonation conducted by the US. Unable to return to Bikini, the islanders are now faced with increasingly heavy flooding from high tides and storms hitting Kili and Ejit with waves washing over the islands and wiping out food crops.
Jamore voiced their concerns to US assistant secretary of interior Esther Kia'aina during her visit to the Marshall's capital of Majuro this month.
"We want to relocate to the US," Jamore said. "Kili has been repeatedly flooded since 2012 and we've asked the Marshall Islands government for help."
There is also serious concern over a recent legislative move by the Marshall's parliament, known as the Nitijela, to take authority for Ejit Island away from the Bikinians. The latest flooding at Kili hit last month during annual high tides, and Jamore described the island's airport runway as like "the Nile River". As the floods damaged houses and crops, the 1.6km long runway, which is 2.5m above sea level, disappeared beneath saltwater. The islanders have called a second time to be resettled in the US.
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