Decision follows decades of failed legal challenges by people who were removed to make way for military bases

Chagos islanders who were expelled in the 1960s to make way for military bases will not be allowed to return to their Indian Ocean homes, the British Foreign Office has announced, citing the UK’s interest in its “defence relationship” with the US.



Confirmation of the ban on resettlement follows decades of unsuccessful legal challenges in the UK against removal by members of the Chagossian community who have been resettled in Britain.

Responding on Wednesday to the Foreign Office decision, the community threatened fresh legal action to rectify what it branded a “shameful decision”.

Tom Guha, the chair of the UK Chagos Support Association, said: “We are profoundly saddened by the fact that the government have today squandered a perfect opportunity to right this historical wrong. This is a shameful decision and will be remembered as such in the history books. The government will continue to pay the price – not only in ongoing litigation fees – but in a deepened moral deficit.”

Announcing the long-awaited decision, the Foreign Office minister Baroness Joyce Anelay said there would be a £40m support package over the next decade to help exiled islanders improve their lives.



“The government has decided against resettlement of the Chagossian people to the British Indian Ocean Territory on the grounds of feasibility, defence and security interests, and cost to the British taxpayer,” she told parliament.

The difficulties in re-establishing “a small remote community on low-lying islands” and developing modern public services for them were too great, she explained. There would be “limited healthcare and education” and a lack of jobs and economic opportunities.



Anelay added: “The government has also considered the interaction of any potential community with the US Naval Support Facility – a vital part of our defence relationship.

“The manner in which the Chagossian community was removed from the territory in the 1960s and 1970s, and the way they were treated, was wrong and we look back with deep regret.”

Despite the community’s “emotional ties to BIOT [British Indian Ocean Territory] and their desire to go back to their former way of life”, the government would instead seek to support the communities where they now live.

As many as 1,500 Chagossians, mainly descendants of those forcibly removed more than half a century ago, had claimed the right to return. In the UK, most Chagossians live near Crawley in Sussex; other refugees have settled in Mauritius and the Seychelles, nearer to their Indian Ocean home.

Reacting to the decision on Wednesday, David Snoxell, who was deputy commissioner for BIOT in the 1990s, said: “A small-scale resettlement could have been tried and 15 years of deception, litigation, wasted public funds and damage to the UK’s human rights reputation avoided. Judges at all levels have deplored the treatment of the Chagossian population since 2000.



“I cannot recall any other issue, at least in the 35 years that I was in the diplomatic service, which has so let down the FCO, undermined our ethical standards, been so carelessly and unsympathetically handled and caused so much unnecessary anguish than this one. I still feel ashamed at the way the FCO has treated and tricked a people whom we had a sacred duty to protect.”

The Foreign Office is to expand its series of “heritage visits” for native Chagossians, allowing them to return for brief trips so that they can retain links to the atolls. The last visit took place in 2014. FCO officials will meet Chagossians in the UK, Mauritius and the Seychelles in the coming days to discuss arrangements for further visits.



The US is to be granted a further 20-year lease to use the military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, when it comes up for renewal at the end of this year.

Referring to the lease, Lady Anelay said: “The agreements underpinning the UK/US defence facility will roll over automatically on 31 December if neither side breaks silence.



“In an increasingly dangerous world, the defence facility is used by us and our allies to combat some of the most difficult problems of the 21st century including terrorism, international criminality, instability and piracy. I can today confirm that the UK continues to welcome the US presence, and that the agreements will continue as they stand until 30 December 2036.”

Human rights groups have claimed that the Diego Garcia base was used for rendition flights involving jihadi suspects, including during the transfer of the Libyan dissident Abdul Hakim-Belhaj to Tripoli in 2004. The Foreign Office denied that he was ever held on the island.



An FCO spokesperson said: “With the exception of the two previously reported flights that transited through Diego Garcia in 2002, since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has not held or transited any detainees through the territorial land, air or seas of the United Kingdom or its territories.”

Responding to the government’s decision, the UK Chagos Support Association said: “The consideration of such a proposal was unprecedented. It followed a consultation with Chagossians which displayed 98% support for resettlement and a government-commissioned feasibility study which deemed resettlement practically feasible.

“Chagossians were forced from their Indian Ocean homeland as part of a UK-US agreement to build a military base on the Chagos Islands in the early 1970s. As that agreement expires this year, Chagossians and their supporters have called for any extension to be conditional on support for Chagossian return.”

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a long-term supporter of allowing the Chagossians to return, said: “This government has today failed to deliver the justice owed to the Chagossians, wholly innocent of anything, abominably treated and brutally removed from their homes.

“Today’s decision should be seen as nothing less than a fundamental denial of a basic human right. There remains no legal basis for preventing the Chagossians’ return.”

The broadcaster Ben Fogle, the association’s patron, said: “It’s another heartbreaking day for the Chagossian community, who have repeatedly been betrayed and abused by their own government. That even now, with so many reasons to support their return, the government have failed to do the right thing makes this a dark day in our country’s history.”

The poet Benjamin Zephaniah, also a patron, said: “Once again, the people of the Chagos Islands are met with injustice. Sadly today’s decision is just another familiar scenario in a long and tragic episode of British foreign policy.”