The British and Mauritian Prime Ministers jointly announced on 3 October 2024 that they had agreed upon the future of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), otherwise known as the Chagos Islands. Negotiations began on 3 November 2022, and eleven rounds of talks had already taken place by 6 September 2024, when Jonathan Powell, a seasoned diplomat and former Downing Street Chief of Staff, was appointed the UK Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for the negotiations. Following a further two rounds of negotiations, it was confirmed that Mauritius would regain sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, while the joint UK/US military facility on Diego Garcia would be retained under the terms of a 99-year lease in the first instance, with the possibility of future renewal. Chagossians will be allowed to resettle in all the previously inhabited islands in the archipelago, with the exception of Diego Garcia.
The BIOT is a remote archipelago of 58 islands, across six main groups, that lies halfway between Indonesia and East Africa in the Indian Ocean, and to the south of Indian subcontinent. The remoteness of the Territory is reflected in the large distances between the islands and Tanzania (2,500 miles), India (1,900 miles), and Indonesia (2,900 miles). Even Mauritius is 1,360 miles away.
Britain’s relationship with the Chagos Islands dates back to 1814, when the French, who had taken possession in 1715 and began settlement in 1776, ceded Mauritius and its dependencies to Britain under the Treaty of Paris, as part of the spoils of war following France’s defeat in the Napoleonic Wars. The islands were subsequently administered as a Dependency of the British Crown Colony of Mauritius. The Chagos Islands were purchased by the UK from Mauritius for £3 million in 1965, along with the islands of Aldabra, Desroches and Farquhar, which were later transferred to the Seychelles upon independence in 1976. The BIOT was created on 8 November 1965, making it the newest, as well as last, of Britain’s many colonies. Mauritian independence was made conditional upon accepting the detachment of BIOT from Mauritius. Mauritius then became an independent state within the British Commonwealth in 1968, thereafter declaring itself a republic in 1992.
Hitherto, the BIOT has been administered from London by a non-resident Commissioner, based in the Overseas Territories Directorate of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The civilian administration is represented locally by a Royal Navy Commander, who serves as Officer Commanding British Forces in Diego Garcia and is known locally as ‘BRITREP.’
Between 1965 and 1973, the entire indigenous population of the islands was evicted by the British authorities to allow a Naval Communications Facility to be set up on Diego Garcia, the largest and most southerly island. Given the choice of resettlement in either Mauritius and Seychelles, most opted for the former. Some Chagossians eventually made their way to the UK after they were granted British citizenship in 2002, and are clustered in the town of Crawley in Sussex, close to Gatwick Airport. Most Chagossians faced a life of poverty in their new countries of abode, where they were frequently discriminated against. The forcibly exiled Chagossians are mostly descended from slaves from Madagascar and Mozambique, who were forcibly recruited to work on coconut plantations on the islands from 1783 onwards, followed by indentured Indian labourers.
Since the Chagossians were evicted, the BIOT has had no permanent residents, although a group of Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers have been confined to a fenced camp on Diego Garcia since October 2021, following their rescue from the ocean while attempting to reach Canada by fishing boat. Access to the islands is restricted and a permit is required in advance. There are no commercial flights, and permits for yachts are only granted to allow safe passage through the Outer Islands. No tourists are allowed, nor can journalists visit. The BIOT was declared a no-take Marine Protected Area (MPA) by the UK Government on 1 April 2010, but the Permanent Court of Arbitration unanimously ruled in 2015 that this MPA violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea by depriving Mauritius of fishing rights in the area.
Diego Garcia’s naval base and airfield have played an important role in the “War Against Terror” that followed the 9/11 attacks in America. Long-range bomber aircraft were deployed from Diego Garcia during the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991), the US-led invasion of Afghanistan (2001), and the initial phase of the Iraq War (2003). The island is reportedly a mini-bastion of Americanism, deep in the central Indian Ocean. This makes it unique among Britain’s colonies, apart from Gibraltar, in that vehicles are driven on the right side of the road, while the US dollar is the currency of exchange.
The matter of sovereignty over the Chagos Islands has been a source of Mauritian discontent from the very outset. The Mauritian Constitution recognised the islands as being part of Mauritius, as did much of the rest of the world. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution on 22 May 2019, declaring that the Chagos Islands were part of Mauritius, with 116 countries voting in favour, and only six against. However, the UK then defied a six-month United Nations deadline to return Chagos Islands to Mauritius by November 2019. In partial retaliation, Mauritius passed the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act 2021, making “misrepresenting the sovereignty of Mauritius over any part of its territory” a criminal offence.
From 1998 onwards, the Chagossians pursued a series of lawsuits against the British Government, seeking compensation and the right of resettlement in the BIOT, but the House of Lords eventually ruled in favour of the UK’s decision to prevent their return to their pristine and idyllic homeland in 2008. Most recently, Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organisation headquartered in New York City, released a report in February 2023 report titled “That’s When the Nightmare Started”. This report identified three crimes against the Chagossians: forced displacement, prevention of their return home, and systematic racism and racial discrimination.
The political agreement, and Britain’s latest decolonisation effort, has been welcomed by many, including President Biden, and has even prompted Argentinian demands for the return of the Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas). Many Conservative Party politicians and right-wing media outlets have criticised the agreement as a surrender of important British geopolitical interests to Mauritius. In their view, Mauritius has no legitimate claim to the islands as its union with the Chagos Islands was set up purely for administrative convenience, and because they believe that the handover will only enhance China’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean. Some Chagossian activists would also have preferred to remain under British supervision. Overall, the return of sovereignty to Mauritius appears to be the right decision, designed to reverse the enforced depopulation and inflicted isolation of these remote islands. Hopefully, the Chagossians should now be able to return to their rightful homeland in the near future.
Ashis Banerjee