Sogi village in Samoa being relocated due to climate change Photo: RNZI/Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia
A family in Samoa's Sogi village is taking legal action over Government moves to relocate them.
The government said it was moving people because of the threat they face from climate change as much of the town is low lying.
Some of the families in Sogi were settled there generations ago after their ancestors had been brought to Samoa by the country's then German colonial masters.
Ownership of the land was eventually vested in them but a 76 year-old member of one the affected families, Nanai Liu Tokuma, said the government is violating his family's rights to own and live on the land.
Nana Liu Tokuma in Sogi village in Samoa Photo: RNZI/Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia
Their lawyer, Pa'u Mulitalo Tafaogalupe, said violations of human rights are a constitutional matter and need to be heard in court.
The government has maintained that its decision to move families in Sogi village, including the Tokuma family, is final.
But Nanai Liu Tokuma said the government's plans had less to do with concerns about climate change and more to do with the plans of business people to develop the area.