Torres Strait islanders “embarrassed” by Scott Morrison’s appearance at last month’s Pacific Islands Forum will request he visit their region to view the impacts of climate change.

Warraber man Kabay Tamu, representing a group of islanders who have complained to the United Nations about climate-based human rights breaches, will deliver the invitation to Australia’s delegation at the UN climate summit in New York next week.

“We’re urging the prime minister to visit our islands, meet our communities and see the climate crisis for himself,” Tamu said.

Tamu told the Guardian in May: “We’re currently seeing the effects of climate change on our islands daily, with rising seas, tidal surges, coastal erosion and inundation of our communities.”

“When erosion happens, and the lands get taken away by the seas, it’s like a piece of us that gets taken with it – a piece of our heart, a piece of our body. That’s why it has an effect on us. Not only the islands but us, as people.

“We have a sacred site here, which we are connected to spiritually. And disconnecting people from the land, and from the spirits of the land, is devastating.

“It’s devastating to even imagine that my grandchildren or my great-grandchildren being forced to leave because of the effects that are out of our hands.”

In May the group, drawn from four islands, went to the UN Human Rights Committee in Switzerland to accuse the Morrison government of breaching their human rights because of inaction on climate change.

Tamu took issue with the Australian position at the recent Pacific Islands Forum, when Morrison rejected smaller nations’ calls for an immediate global ban on new coal-fired power plants and coal mines.

“As fellow islanders, we were embarrassed by Australia’s showing,” Tamu said.

Tamu also criticised the prime minister’s decision not to attend the UN summit despite being in the US to meet Donald Trump, sending Australia’s foreign minister instead.

Sea levels around the world are expected to rise between 75cm and 1.5m by the end of the century, depending on greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Australian Department of Environment and Energy, a rise of just 50cm would increase the risk of flooding around Australia by 300 times – making a once a century flood likely to occur several times a year. In some areas of Australia, flooding risk would rise much more – up to 10,000 times.

The precise sea level rise around the Torres Strait, and the projected inundation, has not been calculated but low-lying islands are expected to experience a much greater flooding risk than mainland Australia. The department identifies the remote islands of the Torres Strait as some of the most vulnerable, as does the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC), which warns communities they may be forced to relocate.



