I bang on about the plight of the people of the Chagos Islands a lot, and sometimes even I might use statistics too much, so let me tell you about Jeanette. Jeanette’s mother, Monique, was born on the Chagos Islands and was therefore a British subject. But her time living there was destined to be short. In the late 1960s, she, like the rest of the population, was forced to leave.

Her removal came when the UK leased the islands to the US military, so it could build a base on the largest island, Diego Garcia. Chagossian deportees were dumped on the docks of Mauritius and Seychelles. Compensation was promised but those exiled to Seychelles, such as Jeanette’s mother, never received a penny. Even for those in Mauritius, meagre compensation arrived almost a decade late.

Viewed as outcasts by the local population, many quickly fell into debt and poverty. It was not until her mid-20s that Jeanette realised a way out and moved to the UK. A legal change in the early 2000s gave her, as well as all the first generation born in exile, British citizenship. But Jeanette’s daughters will not get the same benefits. “I have a British passport, but my daughters aren’t entitled. The Home Office say I must go through an expensive ‘naturalisation’ process.”

‘Hundreds of Chagossian families suffer like this daily.’ Photograph: Reuters Photographer/Reuters

The costs exceed £10,000 over a five-year period, too much for Jeanette who, despite working two jobs, struggles to pay bills most months. Missed payments or simple slip-ups can lead to expensive legal battles – and ultimately to deportation.

Taniella, one of Jeanette’s daughters, is nearly 18. Once her birthday comes, her ability to remain in the country will depend on her family meeting the costs. Returning to Seychelles is not a prospect Jeanette or her children relish. “All the young women where we come from are getting hooked on drugs and falling into prostitution.”

With no family members left in the country, her daughters warned her: “Mummy, if we go back to the Seychelles, just forget about us. We will kill ourselves.” The forced exile was shameful in the first place. Today’s governments should be doing whatever they can to make amends for their predecessors’ crimes. Instead they perpetuate them.

Jeanette’s story is far from unique. Hundreds of Chagossian families suffer like this daily. Vast sums of money from an already impoverished community are drained in visa costs, appeals and legal fees. Jeanette lives in Crawley, which today houses the largest Chagossian population in the UK. The local MP, Henry Smith, is alive to the issue and is proposing reforms that would help to ease the burden for many families.

On Tuesday, Smith will present a bill to parliament that would allow anyone of Chagossian descent to acquire British overseas territories citizenship – the status all Chagossians would have had they not been exiled. As well as being symbolically significant, the bill would cut the cost of acquiring British citizenship for Chagossians to roughly a fifth of what it is now.

The UK is no utopia – something Jeanette knows better than most. As well as constant struggles to pay the bills, her family of five live in a cramped two-bedroom flat with mould that is making her youngest children ill. Her first experiences of the UK were even worse. Two domestic roles saw her sold into modern slavery. “I had to live in their house and was paid £60 per month. I could not eat any of the family’s food. They pointed at an outside tap and said: ‘This will be your bathroom.’ It was the middle of winter in Manchester and I’d never been so cold.”

Thankfully the police intervened and Jeanette now sees a future for her family in the UK. But it is in jeopardy. Smith’s bill comes a year after the government denied the right of return. In its statement, the government instead announced a £40m support package to help Chagossians “where they now live”. It urged: “We must now look forward, not back.” It is very difficult to look forward when your past continues to restrain you. I take the view that most Chagossians take: if the government is serious about its intentions, the single best thing it could do is support Smith’s bill – and waive all the fees.

Jeanette, like most Chagossians, has fought tirelessly to build a life in this country. How cruel if the consequences of the event which blighted her mother’s life, denies her daughters the chance to build their own lives here.

• Poet Benjamin Zephaniah is a patron of the UK Chagos Support Association, which has launched a “fighting fund” to help cover the costs Chagossians face when trying to acquire British citizenship.