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Analysis

UK's moral case for control of Chagos Islands had dwindled internationally

The sovereignty of the remote Chagos Islands will be handed over to Mauritius after a decades-long dispute. But the British establishment has long understood that people there who were evicted from their homes were treated unfairly.

Gurpreet Narwan

Business and economics correspondent

Thursday 3 October 2024 16:02, UK

A demonstrator demanding her return to the Chagos Islands in the Diego Garcia archipelago shouts during a protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London October 22, 2008. Britain's highest court ruled in favour of the British government on Wednesday, blocking the return of hundreds of Chagos Island people to their homes in the south Indian Ocean after nearly 40 years of exile. The decision by the House of Lords ends a years-long battle to secure the Chagos Islanders the right to return to th
Image: A protest over the UK's treatment of the Chagos Islands and its people in October 2008. Pic: Reuters
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There has long been an understanding within the British establishment that the Chagossians who were forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for a military base on Diego Garcia were treated unfairly.

Human rights groups have demanded reparations and resettlement, while Britain's moral case for its control over the islands has dwindled on the international stage.

In 2019 the UN's top court and the general assembly demanded Britain surrender sovereignty, urging the country to "complete the decolonisation process."

Two years later the International Court of Justice ruling also sided with Mauritius.

At first, Britain defied the ruling, calling it an "advisory opinion" but negotiations began under Liz Truss's Conservative government.

That process has now concluded.

Map: OpenStreetMap
Image: Map: OpenStreetMap

Jonathan Powell, the envoy who helped secure the sovereignty deal, said the Chagossians were treated "shamefully" when they were removed from the islands.

Mauritius will now be free to resettle Chagossians, some of whom now live in Britain.

However, no resettlement will take place on Diego Garcia, where the military base will remain on a 99-year-long lease.

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Chagossians have long questioned why the presence of a military base prevents them from living on the Island. The remaining Islands are far less habitable, without the same levels of infrastructure.

It's not a given that anyone will move back.

Mr Powell said: "Going back to the islands … it's going to be difficult. They're very remote and very hard to live on, and the life there before was very difficult.

"But yes, we are committing ourselves to helping on visits, and we're committing to a fund to help on resettlement, if that's possible."

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