Expulsion of the Chagossians

The United Kingdom, at the request of the United States, began expelling the inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago in 1968, concluding its forced deportations on 27 April 1973 with the expulsion of the remaining Chagossians on the Peros Banhos atoll. The inhabitants, known at the time as the Ilois, are today known as Chagos Islanders or Chagossians.

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.

Chagossians and human rights advocates have said that the Chagossian right of occupation was violated by the British Foreign Office as a result of the 1966 agreement between the British and American governments to provide an unpopulated island for a U.S. military base, and that additional compensation and a right of return be provided.

Legal action to claim compensation and the right of abode in the Chagos began in April 1973 when 280 islanders, represented by a Mauritian attorney, petitioned the government of Mauritius to distribute the £650,000 compensation provided in 1972 by the British government. It was not distributed until 1977. Various petitions and lawsuits have been ongoing since then, but have not had much effect due to the repeated refusal of the US and UK to provide reparations and repatriation beyond limited monetary compensation.

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. The United Nations General Assembly then voted to give Britain a six-month deadline to begin the process of handing over the islands. In October 2024, the UK announced it would be giving up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a deal, which is still subject to finalising a treaty. Additionally, the current military base on Diego Garcia would be leased to the British government for an initial period of 99 years under the deal. Some Chagossians in Britain did criticise the deal for not having included the Chagossian community in the decision-making process.