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10:44 05.10.2024 •
Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago.
Photo: Reuters
The UK will hand over sovereignty of the remote Chagos Islands to Mauritius after a decades-long dispute, Sky News reports.
The deal to transfer the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius includes the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, home to a military base used by the UK and the US that plays a crucial role in the region's stability and international security.
Under the agreement, the base will remain under UK and US jurisdiction for at least the next 99 years.
The UK government said that the treaty would "address wrongs of the past and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to support the welfare" of Chagossians - the native people of the islands.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the move, saying it was "mutually beneficial".
Concerns have been raised a future Mauritian government will not adhere to the agreement and will allow China, which is heavily invested in Mauritius, to take over the base.
Pic.: OpenStreetMap
A statement from the Mauritian and UK governments said Mauritius is now "free to implement a programme of resettlement" on the islands, other than Diego Garcia, and the UK will provide money and other support to Chagossians who had to leave.
The UK will also provide a "package of financial support" to Mauritius, including annual payments for the next 99 years and will provide funding for an infrastructure partnership.
The Chagos Islands had been home to the Chagossians from the 1700s, brought as slaves from Africa and India by the French.
The islands had been a dependency of Mauritius when it was a French colony, but the UK claimed the Chagos Islands as part of Mauritius in the early 19th Century.
Mauritius gained independence from the UK in 1968 and since then has been trying to claim the Chagos archipelago as Mauritian.
In the late 1960s, the US asked the UK to expel everyone from the archipelago so they could build a naval support facility on the largest island, Diego Garcia. It is leased to the US but operates as a joint UK-US base.
Since 1971, only US military employees have been allowed access. Chagossians living on the island, and other islands, were removed to Mauritius or the Seychelles. The expulsions are regarded as one of the most shameful parts of Britain's modern colonial history and Chagossians have spent decades fighting to return.
In 2010, Mauritius started proceedings against the UK to challenge the legality of the archipelago, and compensation and repatriation of former inhabitants. Mauritius took it to the International Court of Justice in 2018.
The UK government has offered British Overseas Territories Citizenship to Chagossians since 2002, with about 3,500 becoming citizens - most living in Crawley, West Sussex, near Gatwick Airport.
In 2019, the UN General Assembly said the Chagos Islands "forms an integral part of the territory of Mauritius", although it was not legally binding.
The Labour government picked the talks back up and have now agreed to give the islands back to Mauritius, while the US and UK keep the military base.
Former foreign secretary James Cleverly accused the government of being "weak, weak, weak".
He said: "Labour lied to get into office. Said they'd be whiter than white, said they wouldn't put up taxes, said they'd stand up to the EU, said that they'd be patriotic. All lies!"
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said "giving up the Chagos Islands is a strategic disaster" and claimed the US "will be furious and Beijing delighted".
…Britain is de facto openly harming the United States.
London's urgent refusal of control over the island of Diego Garcia, with the largest military base of the United States, can be assessed as a potential threat for US Navy. The American army will be – sooner or later – forced to leave this island, which is no longer the property of England. “That’s your problem. Help yourself…”
London is no longer responsible ‘de jure’… But – ‘de facto’?
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