Chagossians
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox ethnic group
The Chagossians — also called Chagos Islanders or Template:Lang Template:IPA<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> — are an Afro-Asian ethnic group originating from freed African slaves as well as people of Asian (Indian and Malay) descent brought to the Chagos Islands, specifically Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, and the Salomon island chain, in the late 18th century.<ref name="Chagosethnicity">Template:Cite web</ref> Under international law, they are the indigenous peoples of the Chagos archipelago, as they are descended from the earliest human settlers of the islands.<ref name=":2" /> Most Chagossians now live in Mauritius, Seychelles, and the United Kingdom after the forcible removal by the British government in the late 1960s and early 1970s so that Diego Garcia, the island where most Chagossians lived, could serve as the location for a joint United Kingdom–United States military base. Today, no Chagossians are allowed to live on the island of Diego Garcia, nor anywhere in the Chagos Archipelago, despite many of the once-inhabited islands being over Template:Convert away from Diego Garcia.
The Chagossians are a mix of African, Indian and Malay descent.<ref name="Chagosethnicity" /> The French brought some to the Chagos Islands as slaves from Mauritius in 1786.Template:Citation needed Others arrived as fishermen, farmers, and coconut plantation workers during the 19th century.
The Chagossians speak Chagossian Creole, a French-based creole language whose vocabulary also incorporates words originating in various African and Asian languages and is part of the Bourbonnais Creole family. Chagossian Creole is still spoken by some of their descendants in Mauritius and the Seychelles. Chagossian people living in the UK speak English. Some settled in the town of Crawley in West Sussex, and the Chagossian community there numbered approximately 3,000 in 2016,<ref name="BBC-38003791">Template:Cite news</ref> which increased to 3,500 in 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Manchester also has a Chagossian community, which has included artist Audrey Albert.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The British government separated the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius, creating a new colony in Africa, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). To avoid accountability to the United Nations for its continued colonial rule, the UK falsely claimed that the Chagos had no permanent population.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2016, the British government rejected the right of the Chagossians to return to the islands after a 45-year legal dispute.<ref name=guardian20161116/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2019, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion stating that the United Kingdom did not have sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and that the administration of the archipelago should be handed over "as rapidly as possible" to Mauritius.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref> Since this, the United Nations General Assembly and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea have reached similar decisions. China abstained in the 2019 UN vote, which was a step towards reaching an agreement to return the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In October 2024, the UK agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and stated that Mauritius "will now be free to implement a programme of resettlement on the islands of the Chagos Archipelago, other than Diego Garcia". The UK will also set up a trust fund for the scattered Chagossian diaspora, now numbering 10,000.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2021, Mauritius amended its Criminal Code to outlaw "Misrepresenting the sovereignty of Mauritius over any part of its territory", with the penalty of a fine or jail term up to 10 years but only for a "person who [is] acting under the authority or instructions of, or pursuant to a contract with, or with the direct or indirect financial support of, a foreign State or any organ or agency of such a State" <ref>Template:Cite act</ref>
History
Early history and ethnogenesis
In 1793, when the first successful colony was founded on Diego Garcia, coconut plantations were established on many of the atolls and isolated islands of the archipelago. Initially the workers were enslaved Africans,Template:Clarification needed but after 1840 they were freemen, many of whom were descended from those earlier enslaved. They formed an inter-island culture called Ilois (a French Creole word meaning Islanders).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Expulsion and dispossession
Template:Wikisource In 1965, as part of a deal to grant Mauritian independence, the UK separated the Chagos Archipelago, at the time a part of its Mauritius territory, from the colony and reorganized it as the British Indian Ocean Territory.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The UK also labelled the Chagossians, whose ancestral links to the territory go back to the late 18th century, as “transient workers” to avoid breaching International Law.<ref name=":3" /> The territory's new constitution was set out in a statutory instrument imposed unilaterally with no referendum or consultation with the Chagossians and it envisaged no democratic institutions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 16 April 1971, the United Kingdom issued a policy called BIOT Immigration Ordinance #1 which made it a criminal offence for those without military clearance to be on the islands without a permit.<ref name=vine>Template:Cite book</ref>
Between 1967 and 1973, the Chagossians, then numbering over 1,000 people, were expelled by the British government, first to the island of Peros Banhos, Template:Convert away from their homeland, and then, in 1973, to Mauritius.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A number of Chagossians who were evicted reported that they were threatened with being shot or bombed if they did not leave the island.<ref name="vine" /> One old man reported to The Washington Post journalist David Ottaway that an American official told him, "If you don't leave you won't be fed any longer."<ref name="vine" /> BIOT commissioner Bruce Greatbatch later ordered all dogs on the island to be killed. Meanwhile, food stores on the island were allowed to deplete in order to pressure the remaining inhabitants to leave.<ref name="vine" /> The Chagossians owned no real property on the islands and lived in housing provided for farm workers by the absentee landowners of the plantations. The forced expulsion of the Chagossians after the acquisition of the plantations from their absentee landlords by the British Government was for the purpose of establishing a United States air and naval base on Diego Garcia, with a population of between 3,000 and 5,000 U.S. soldiers and support staff, as well as a few troops from the United Kingdom.<ref name="vine" /> Their exile is referred to as the "dérasiné" in the Chagossian language.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref>
In early April 2006, in an excursion organised and financed by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a group of around a hundred Chagossians were permitted to visit the British Indian Ocean Territory for the first time in over thirty years.<ref name="BBC_Chagossians_visit">Template:Cite news</ref>
Court battles
In April 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a lawsuit by Louis Olivier Bancoult and other Chagossians, finding that their claims were a non-justiciable political question, i.e. a question that U.S. courts cannot handle because it is properly the business of the Congress to address it legislatively.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Bancoult v. McNamara, 445 F.3d 427 (D.C. Cir. 2006).</ref>
On 11 May 2006, the Chagossians won their case in the High Court of Justice in England, which found that they were entitled to return to the Chagos Archipelago. It remained to be seen how this judgment might be implemented in practice.<ref name="BBC_court_victory">Template:Cite news</ref> However, in June 2006 the British government filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal against the High Court's decision. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office put forward an argument based on the treatment of the Japanese Canadians following the attacks on Pearl Harbor.<ref name=BlackBritain>Template:Cite web</ref>
After the Court of Appeal had upheld the decision of the High Court, the British government appealed successfully to the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords. On 22 October 2008, the Law Lords reached a decision on the appeal made by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband. They found in favour of the Government in a 3–2 verdict, ending the legal process in the UK and dashing the islanders' hopes of return. The judges who voted to allow the government's appeal were Lord Hoffmann, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, and Lord Carswell; those dissenting were Lord Bingham of Cornhill and Lord Mance.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2016, the British government denied the right of the Chagossians to return to the islands after a 45-year legal dispute.<ref name=guardian20161116>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2019, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion stating that the United Kingdom did not have sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and that the administration of the archipelago should be handed over "as rapidly as possible" to Mauritius.<ref name="auto"/> The United Nations General Assembly then voted to give Britain a six-month deadline to begin the process of handing-over the islands.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Marine nature reserve and government communications leak
In April 2010, the British Government—specifically, the British diplomat Colin Roberts, acting on the instructions of David Miliband<ref name="Guardian_high_court">Template:Cite news</ref>—established a marine nature reserve around the Chagos Islands known as the Chagos Marine Protected Area.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The designation proved controversial as the decision was announced during a period when the UK Parliament was in recess.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On 1 December 2010, a leaked US Embassy London diplomatic cable dating back to 2009<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> exposed British and US calculations in creating the marine nature reserve. The cable relays exchanges between US Political Counselor Richard Mills and British Director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Colin Roberts, in which Roberts "asserted that establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago's former residents". Richard Mills concludes:
However, the cable also mentions that "there are proposals (for a marine park) that could provide the Chagossians warden jobs". As of 2018, no such jobs exist. The cable (reference ID "09LONDON1156")<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="telegraph1">Full discussion and copy of WikiLeaks cables - Template:Cite news</ref> was classified as confidential and "no foreigners", and leaked as part of the Cablegate cache.
Armed with the WikiLeaks revelations, the Chagossians launched an appeal, seeking a judgement that the reserve was unlawfully aimed at preventing them from returning home. Although United States Army soldier Chelsea Manning had been arrested nearly three years previously for the leaks, the UK government felt unable to confirm to the court that the leaked documents were genuine.<ref name="Guardian_refuse_admit">Template:Cite news</ref> It was made clear to the court that the government's inability to confirm was for two reasons: firstly, to protect itself from the charge that it created the reserve to prevent the islanders from ever returning home and, secondly, out of a purported fear that the US government might get angry if the cables were acknowledged as genuine.<ref name="Guardian_refuse_admit"/> Despite the contents of his cable being known—"a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago's former residents"—Roberts denied, when questioned in court, that there was an "ulterior motive" behind the reserve's establishment.<ref name="Guardian_refuse_admit"/> Lord Justice Richards and Mr. Justice Mitting then refused to accept the documents as evidence, declaring that to do so would breach diplomatic privilege. The Guardian described their decision as having "far-reaching consequences" and "a severe setback for the use of material obtained from leaks or whistleblowers".<ref name="Guardian_reject_cable">Template:Cite news</ref> In June 2013, the pair of judges turned down the appeal brought by the Chagossians, ruling that the reserve was compatible with EU law.<ref name="Guardian_high_court"/>
Pollution
It emerged in 2014 that—for three decades, in violation of environmental rules—the American navy had dumped hundreds of tonnes of sewage and waste water into a protected lagoon on Diego Garcia.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In response to the revelations, the chair of the Chagos Refugees Group UK Branch, Sabrina Jean, noted:
Discourse about the Chagossians
The WikiLeaks cables revealed diplomatic cables between the US and UK about the Chagossians.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A cable written by D.A. Greenhill on 24 August 1966 to a US State Department official refers to the Chagossians as "some few Tarzans or Man Fridays".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Similar language appears in a 2009 US State Department cable (09LONDON1156), which offered a description of the UK government's views about the effect of the Marine Protection Act: Template:Blockquote
2012 petition
On 5 March 2012, a petition was launched on We the People section of the whitehouse.gov website in order to ask the White House in the United States to consider the Chagos case.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The petition read as follows:
On 4 April 2012, the sufficient number of 25,000 signatures was met to require a response from the Office of the President under its policy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> An undated response was posted on the White House petition web site by the United States Department of State, in the name of Michael Posner (Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor), Philip H. Gordon (Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs) and Andrew J. Shapiro (Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The response read as follows:
Possible return following the 2024 handover agreement
A Chagossian resettlement plan, overseen by international experts, will be discussed in June 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In June 2025, the Great British PAC,Template:Clarify with militant of right of chagossien launched a legal action aimed at demonstrating the illegal actions of the British government in signing this restitution agreement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The agreement may be renewed for an additional 40 years after the initial 99-year period, and for an additional period thereafter.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On June 10, 2025, UN experts called for the suspension of a recently signed agreement between the United Kingdom and Mauritius, warning that it failed to protect the rights of the displaced Chagossian people. “By maintaining a foreign military presence of the United Kingdom and the United States on Diego Garcia and preventing the Chagossian people from returning… the agreement appears to be in contradiction with the Chagossian right of return,” according to the experts. The experts criticized the lack of provisions allowing access to cultural sites or the preservation of the Chagossian heritage. They called on the two countries to renegotiate the restitution agreement, stating, “We call for the suspension of ratification of the agreement and the negotiation of a new agreement that fully guarantees the rights of the Chagossian people”.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The British House of Lords is considering a motion arguing against ratification of the treaty on June 30, 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In July 2025, a legal action demanding that the British government consult with the Chagossians before transferring sovereignty of their territory progressed before the High Court. The judicial review, initiated by Chagossian claimant Louis Misley Mandarin with the support of the Great British PAC, was accepted and fast-tracked by the High Court, with a decision set for July 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Indigenous status
The legal definition of the term "indigenous" varies widely by legal system, with classification as an indigenous being based on a variety of factors. The Chagossians are officially recognized as an Indigenous people by many entities including but not limited to the United Nations,<ref name=":2">Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues; the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent; the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights; the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of nonrecurrence. Template:Webarchive</ref> Cultural Survival,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Human Rights Watch,<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> and Minority Rights Group International.<ref>Submission to the British Parliament from the Minority Rights Group International, 12 October 2007 Template:Webarchive "Based on its 40 years of working with indigenous communities worldwide, MRG is of the view that the Chagossians do indeed constitute an indigenous people. The UK's duty towards the Chagossians must therefore be upheld in line with the rights of indigenous peoples rights under international law."</ref> In a memo to the American government, Paul Gore-Booth promised the American government that there would be no indigenous people in the islands except for seagulls – not that the islands had no indigenous people.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In a 1970 memo, UK Foreign Office lawyer Anthony Aust emphasised the government's intention to "maintain the fiction that the inhabitants of Chagos are not a permanent or semi-permanent population" and dedicated an entire paragraph to outlining plans for "maintaining the fiction".<ref name=":1" /> In 1968 Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart wrote in a secret document that "by any stretch of the English language, there was an indigenous population and the Foreign Office knew it."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They are designated as a national minority by the government of Mauritius.<ref name=":0" />
See also
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Further reading
References
Bibliography
- Wenban-Smith, N. and Carter, M., Chagos: A History, Exploration, Exploitation, Expulsion Published by Chagos Conservation Trust, London (2016), Template:ISBN
External links
- The UK Chagos Support Association Template:Webarchive
- Chagossian Records Template:Webarchive
- Let Us Return USA Template:Webarchive
- Chagos Islands Site - The oldest site in favour of the Chagos Islanders Template:Webarchive
- Let Them Return - The Chagos People's Homeland Campaign
- Diego Garcia: Paradise Cleansed Template:Webarchive by John Pilger
- Spreading democracy, by any means necessary. the US/UK and Diego Garcia
- US/UK BIOT defence agreements, 1966-1982, US Court filing
Template:Chagos Islands dispute Template:British peoples Template:Authority control