Why is the UK handing the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius?

After a dispute running for more than 50 years, the United Kingdom will finally hand back the Chagos Islands, an archipelago located in the Indian Ocean, to the southeast African island country of Mauritius.

As part of an agreement on Thursday, the governments of the UK and Mauritius jointly announced that full sovereignty of the Chagos, a remote group of more than 60 islands, would again belong to Mauritius in exchange for guarantees that a United States military base could continue operating there for the next 99 years.

The announcement has prompted mixed feelings among Chagossians who were exiled from the archipelago to Mauritius, the Seychelles and the UK in the 1960s and 1970s, and have for years fought to return to their ancestral homeland without any conditions attached.

While many acknowledge this is a crucial step towards asserting the rights of Chagossians, some also point out that they were not included in the negotiations between the two governments.

Here’s what you need to know about the new deal, and why there’s been much controversy over the Chagos:

Sailors on board the USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) during a routine port visit at Diego Garcia, February 11, 2023 [US Navy/via AP]

What’s happening?

Mauritius will now control the Chagos, taking over sovereignty from its former colonial ruler of 1815 to 1968, the UK.

According to the terms of the deal, Mauritius is “free” to legally resettle the islands of the Chagos, excluding Diego Garcia, the largest and most southerly island, home to a US military base, and the only one that has remained inhabited since the 1970s. The archipelago is otherwise empty, with no inhabitants.

The UK leased Diego Garcia to the US in 1966 for 50 years. In return, the US provided a $14m discount on sales of its Polaris missile systems to the UK. The Polaris system consisted of nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

Diego Garcia has housed a US military base since then. Some 2,500 members of staff on the base come from the US, Mauritius and other countries.

On Thursday, the UK also pledged to provide a financial support package to Mauritius to support its economy. The value of this financial support was not disclosed.

In addition, the UK will also set up a trust fund to support the descendants of the 1,500 Chagossians who were forcefully evicted from the islands between the 1960s and 1970s. There are now about 10,000 Chagossians scattered in Mauritius, the Seychelles and the UK. Many complain of ill-treatment and low salaries in their adopted countries.

Mauritius and the UK will collaborate on projects in environmental protection, maritime security and crime prevention, including tackling people and drug trafficking which are on the rise in Mauritius, according to the joint statement on Thursday.

“The treaty will open a new chapter in our shared history,” the two countries said. The agreement would also “herald a new era of economic, security and environmental partnership between our two nations”.

US President Joe Biden in a White House statement on Thursday commended the “historic agreement”. “It is a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes,” he said.

Why was control of the Chagos Islands disputed?

The islands have long been disputed because of claims and counterclaims about the Indigenous nature of Chagossians.

The French were the first to colonise Mauritius along with the Chagos Islands in 1715. However, the UK took control of the region in 1814 after the fall of France’s Napoleon Bonaparte and the subsequent ceding of French overseas territories to conquering nations.

In 1965, when Mauritius was pushing for independence, the UK conditioned the nation’s freedom on its relinquishing of Chagos. The UK detached the islands to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Three years later, in 1968, Mauritius gained independence from the UK.

Between 1965 and 1973, the UK exiled all Chagossians who had been living on the various islands since the 18th century to Mauritius, Seychelles and, eventually, the UK after many were granted British citizenship in 2002.

Those exiled were descendants of enslaved people from the French and Portuguese colonies of Madagascar and Mozambique who were brought forcibly to the Chagos Islands in the 1700s and were forced to work on coconut plantations for the UK government.

UK officials claimed at the time of their exile that the coconut economy was dying and that the islanders would suffer. Critics, however, have said the UK was, in fact, fulfilling the US’s requirement to take over a single uninhabited island.

The UK argued for many years that Chagossians were a “non-permanent population” or “transient workers” although Chagossians consider themselves Indigenous to the island.

Meanwhile, in 1971 the US Navy began constructing a military base on the strategically located Diego Garcia. The island is close to the Maldives in Southeast Asia, countries in Southeast Africa, as well as the Middle East.

Diego Garcia military base is still in operation. It was a key location in the US overseas “war on terror” operations following al-Qaeda’s September 11 attacks on the US in 2001. From there, the US military deployed aircraft to Iran and Afghanistan.

Controversially, rights groups also accuse the UK and US governments of using the atoll as “black sites” or torture centres for suspected members of armed groups, such as al-Qaeda.

Protesters hold banners outside the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, September 3, 2018, where judges listen to arguments in a case on whether the UK illegally maintains sovereignty over the Chagos Islands [Mike Corder/AP]

How did Mauritius legally challenge the UK?

Chagossian communities living in the UK have over the years launched unsuccessful legal challenges against the government, demanding their right to return. Chagossians, who number about 3,000 in the UK, mostly live in Crawley, West Sussex – close to Gatwick Airport – and routinely take part in “heritage visits” to the atolls to maintain their connection with the Chagos.

In 2010, a WikiLeaks cable revealed that a UK official in the 1960s had called Chagossians “Man Fridays and Tarzans”, referring to the fictional Tarzan, a man raised by apes.

The controversial revelation sparked anger. The same year, former Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam began a legal battle to win the territory back.

Chagossian communities and rights groups pressured the UK government for action in 2016 when the US lease was set to expire. However, while officials said the UK “regretted” the manner in which Chagossians had been exiled, but they declared that the Chagossians could not be allowed to return to their homeland because of the UK’s “defence interests, expensive costs to the British taxpayer, and the feasibility” of such a project. The US lease of Diego Garcia was renewed for 20 more years until 2036.

The UK foreign office said it would support exiled Chagossians where they lived with about 40 million pounds ($53m) over the following 10 years.

In 2018, Mauritius dragged the UK to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). A year later, in February 2019, the court issued a non-binding advisory opinion in favour of Mauritius: The UK had wrongfully forced the inhabitants of the island to leave to make way for a US airbase and, hence, should give up its control of Chagos, the ICJ said.

In a vote at the United Nations General Assembly in May 2019, 116 member states voted in favour of a resolution stating that the UK should give up the Chagos within six months. Only six members, including the US, voted against it.

However, the UK flouted that resolution, despite international pressure.

In 2022, talks between the government of former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss began with serving Mauritian President Pravind Jugnauth.

Several British conservatives, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, opposed handing over Chagos to Mauritius, arguing that Mauritius could grant its close ally, China, access to the strategic territory, possibly proving a security threat to the US military base and undermining US-UK relations.

China has partnered with Mauritius on dozens of developmental projects. A portion of Mauritians known as Sino-Mauritians trace their ancestry back to China.

How do Chagossians feel about the new deal?

Some Chagossians have also long disputed Mauritian sovereignty over the island and are campaigning for a referendum that will lead to their self-determination as an Indigenous people.

“We’ve been stabbed in the back by the British government again,” Frankie Bontemps, a British Chagossian, told Al Jazeera, referring to the question of self-rule. Bontemps said he and other Chagossians will have to strategise on further campaigns before any plans are put into motion, in hopes that “the British government will have the decency to listen to us”.

Some have also criticised the UK and Mauritian governments for excluding Chagossians from the negotiations that led to the deal on Thursday.

Statement by Chagossian Voices pic.twitter.com/p9bbNbbHz1

— Chagossian Voices (@ChagossianVoic2) October 3, 2024

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Chagossian Voices, a UK-based group campaigning for Chagossian rights, said many in their community had only heard the news through the media, like everyone else.

“The views of Chagossians, the Indigenous inhabitants of the Islands, have been consistently and deliberately ignored and we demand full inclusion in the drafting of the treaty,” the statement read.

However, others acknowledge that the agreement shows the British government has finally recognised and acted on its “past mistakes”.

“This recognition is long overdue, especially for the Chagossian community,” Marie Isabelle Charlot, a UK-based Chagossian rights activist, wrote on the employment and business social media site, LinkedIn, on Thursday.

In 2002, the British government granted citizenship to Chagossians born between 1969 and 1983, allowing hundreds to move from Mauritius and the Seychelles to the UK.

However, Charlot wrote that many do not feel accepted in the UK. Chagossians there often say they face racism and do not have access to well-paid jobs to afford visa fees for their families.

“Today, some of us are still being told to return to Mauritius, even offered flight tickets back, because we are family orientated and do not want to leave our children or partner behind. This painful reality reminds us of where we truly belong,” the activist wrote.

Now, Charlot writes, with the new deal, true action to support communities abroad is essential. “It is time for [the UK] to go beyond words,” she added.