People evicted from former British colony hope new documentary Another Paradise will reinforce UN calls for withdrawal

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Chagos Islanders have had few victories in their long battle to return from British-enforced exile to their archipelago homeland in the Indian Ocean.

But small steps keep their campaign alive and it is hoped a documentary that will premiere on Saturday will exert pressure on the UK government to change its stance.

Britain’s ongoing occupation of the islands was declared illegal in February in an “advisory opinion” by the international court of justice at The Hague. Last month, the UN general assembly showed overwhelming support for a motion setting a six-month deadline for a withdrawal from the Chagos Islands so the archipelago could be reunified with Mauritius.

The film aims to bring a shameful episode in Britain's post-colonial history out of the shadows Olivier Magis, film-maker

Yet the islanders remain stuck in exile. After being evicted in the 60s and 70s, some Chagossians were given British passports in 2002; today, an estimated 3,000 second- and third-generation islanders live in Britain.

The film, Another Paradise, by Belgian director Olivier Magis, documents a community in Crawley, West Sussex, home to Britain’s largest Chagossian population.

It will also be screened by public service broadcasters in Belgium, France and Finland.

“The film serves to bring a shameful episode in Britain’s post-colonial history out of the shadows,” said Magis. “When you listen to the arguments of the British government in the past few years, everything is justified. Politicians talk about relocation, not deportation, without mentioning what really happened and the way it happened.”

Sabrina Jean, 46, chair of the Chagos Refugee Group’s UK branch, said she hoped the UN decision and the documentary, which will be shown at the Sheffield film festival on 8 and 10 June, would help: “We know the UN decision is not binding. I don’t know yet what will happen but Chagossians will not sit down. We will fight for our rights.”

Jean’s father, 68-year-old Serge Aristide, was among the 1,500-plus people forced to leave the British overseas territory when it was leased to the US to build a military base in Diego Garcia. They were taken in boats to Mauritius and the Seychelles without relocation assistance, and most lived in poverty. Jean moved from Mauritius to the UK in 2006.

Timeline Chagos Islands Show Hide

France establishes colony Diego Garcia is made home to a French colony using slave labour on plantations Britain takes control Mauritius and the Chagos Islands are ceded to Britain at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in the Treaty of Paris Becomes part of British Indian Ocean Territory Before independence is granted to Mauritius, the UK separates the Chagos archipelago from Mauritius, creating British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Military deal with US Britain allows the US to use the largest island, Diego Garcia, as a military base in exchange for a discount on the purchase of Polaris missiles. Expulsions begin Forced expulsion of around 1,500 Chagossians begin as access to food supplies is restricted. Most are moved to Mauritius or the Seychelles. Compensation is offered Chagossian refugees in Mauritius were paid compensation, and more offers followed contingent on them signing agreements not to return to their homes. Resettlement to the UK British passports are granted to some Chagossians. Many move from Mauritius to Crawley. A UK government feasibility study into resettlement concludes it would be expensive and difficult. Wikileaks revelations A Marine Protected Area is established around the Chagos Islands. Documents published by Wikileaks show a UK diplomat saying that “establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago’s former residents”. Government actions ruled illegal International Court of Justice rules that the agreement to separate the Chagos Islands from Mauritius in 1965 prior to decolonisation was unlawful. UN defeat for the UK The United Nations general assembly overwhelmingly backs a motion condemning Britain’s occupation of the islands. The vote, which left the UK diplomatically isolated, set a six-month deadline for the UK to withdraw from the archipelago and for it to be reunified with neighbouring Mauritius.

“Sabrina is full of hope, full of optimism and I hope that anyone who struggles will be inspired by her,” said Magis. “She left school at 16, she is an NHS cleaner, but she fights against the US and the UK. She uses all the small tools she can find everyday, to help her community, to organise cultural events, to remember the creole culture. She has nothing but she gives everything. In French, we call it the strategy of the little steps.

“My hope is that this will strike a chord with UK and US audiences. The Chagossians are a very small community. They don’t have any money and the UK government are playing a waiting strategy … waiting until the third or the fourth generation are rooted in UK soil and they will forget.”

At last, the Chagossians have a real chance of going back home | Philippe Sands Read more

Much of the documentary was filmed in 2016, a crucial year, when the US lease for the Diego Garcia military base was scheduled to end. But, in a crushing defeat for the islanders, Alan Duncan, the foreign secretary at the time, confirmed a ban on resettlement to the islands. What had happened was “deplorable”, Duncan said, but the government had decided against resettlement, on the grounds of “feasibility, defence and security interests, and the cost to the British taxpayer”.

The relocation of 1,500 people was estimated to cost £256m.

Serge Aristide, who was 17 when he was forced to leave Peros Banhos, one of the Chagos islands, said his soul would not rest until he went home. “I don’t want to be buried in the land of the colonisers,” he said. “I want to die on my native soil, where I’ll be surrounded by native fish, sharks, turtles, rays, silk snapper, ruby snapper … here my soul can rest.”