As Mauritius and the UK scramble to finalise the terms of a treaty to hand over the Chagos Islands before Donald Trump becomes president, there remains a glaring issue with any agreement: for years, both governments have ignored the desire of Chagossian leaders for a democratic solution to the islands’ future.
It is 104 days since Sir Keir Starmer announced in regal style – by No. 10 press release rather than to our elected representatives in parliament first – that he’d agreed to hand over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), to Mauritius. The secret deal included the fate of the island of Diego Garcia, a strategic UK-US military base and home to about 4,000 military personnel.
The UK and Mauritian governments have gaslit the Chagossians
The agreement in principle was made at great speed: the new Labour government had only been in power for three months when the announcement was made on 3 October. A general election in Mauritius was held immediately after.
Now the clock on rubber-stamping the agreement is ticking. Diplomats and lawyers had been working at breakneck speed to get the terms finalised before Donald Trump is inaugurated next week as president of the United States. There are fears the new administration may put pressure on Starmer to stop or change the deal after Mark Rubio, Trump’s choice as Secretary of State, said it could ‘provide an opportunity for communist China to gain valuable intelligence on our naval support facility’. As one British official is reported to have said, ‘There’s a sense that we need to get signatures on paper before 20 January – that is the aspiration.’ Nevertheless, reports yesterday suggested Starmer may have given up on his attempt to get a deal over the line in the little time that remains before Monday’s inauguration.
Over the past few months, two joint UK and Mauritius government press releases have been published confirming talks are ongoing. Gavin Glover, senior counsel, Attorney General and head of the Mauritian delegation on the Chagos file has recently visited London. He told a Sunday newspaper that ‘we had a productive meeting’ and ‘have not come empty-handed’. Yesterday, it was confirmed by the Mauritian government that he’s flying back to London.
One current key point of negotiation in the 14th round of talks is said to centre around the fee Mauritius should receive annually from Britain to lease Diego Garcia – reported to be £90 million a year. Also up for discussion is how much money should be paid upfront and whether to stick with the 99-year lease, as originally agreed with the previous Mauritian government. A British Foreign office official told the Financial Times: ‘Good progress has been made and discussions are ongoing to reach an agreement that is in both sides’ interests.’
There’s one major problem though: the speedy deal ignores the democratic will of the Chagossian people. Many islanders and their families around the world oppose the deal. It is undemocratic to the core.
Many want a referendum to decide the future sovereignty of the islands and object to it simply being handed over to Mauritius without one. Not all Chagossians are even Mauritian citizens; many live in the UK. Many of them want the islands to remain British, even if just for now, and others support having an option to move to self-determination in the future. At the very least they all want a seat at the negotiating table and the democratic right to live in their homeland.
Bernadette Dugasse leads Chagossian Voices, a British-based organisation representing several community groups, such as the Elderly Group in West Sussex, made up of those born on the islands such as herself. She has launched a judicial review to question the legality of a foreign policy agreement about the Chagos Islands without consulting all of its people.
‘I don’t trust any politician any more,’ says Dugasse. ‘Our rights are being are violated, all over again.’ She has been helping members fill in a survey questionnaire about what they want. Fellow campaigners Jean-Francois Nellan and Frankie Bontemps agree with having a referendum. ‘Ultimately I would like to see self-determination under British protection, like the Falklands, Gibraltar and the Cayman Islands,’ explains Nellan.
Mylene Augustin, who heads the Elderly Group, told me, ‘We are looking for a referendum. A vote on what we want, to let our community choose who they want to be their government.’ She says some members want self-rule but most want to remain British. If it comes down to a choice between being ruled by a British or Mauritian government, ‘we want the British government to rule us,’ Augustin confirms, explaining that Britain provides more opportunities for Chagossians.
Today there is a split among the Chagossian groups. The group leaders in the UK I spoke to are all opposed to Mauritius gaining sovereignty, apart from one: the Chagos Refugees Group (CRG), led by veteran campaigner Olivier Bancoult. Based in Mauritius, with a UK-based sister group, the CRG announced on 13 October that ‘the group publicly affirmed its support for the recent agreement of the governments of the United Kingdom and Mauritius on sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago’. Claiming to represent the largest number of exiled Chagossians, the group insists that, aside from international law, the right of return for all Chagossians should be honoured.
The issue is that current sovereignty agreement being hashed out between the UK and Mauritius offers no guaranteed right of return for all Chagossian people, only for Mauritius to resettle the islands as it sees fit. After being deported from the islands in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chagossian families were sent to Mauritius and the Seychelles, with many then moving on to Britain in search of a better life. A handful also live in other countries such as France and Switzerland. In 2022, the British government offered free passports to Chagossians living in Mauritius. As Foreign Secretary David Lammy confirmed in his statement to parliament in October, ‘Mauritius is now free to implement a resettlement programme to islands other than Diego Garcia.’ There was no mention of Chagossian’s democratic rights as a people on the islands.
The treatment of Bancoult’s Mauritius-based CRG contrasts starkly with the way UK-based Chagossian groups have been dealt with by the British government. When the joint UK-Mauritius agreement was first announced last year, L’Express online magazine in Mauritius reported that Oliver Bancoult and other members of the CRG had been invited to a meeting with the then prime minister Pravind Jugnauth to be informed of the plan.
There was no such equivalent privileged access for UK-based Chagossian leaders such as Dugasse, Nellan and Bontemps of Chagossian Voices. Instead Dugasse and others say they found out about the deal from the media. To this day, neither Prime Minister Keir Starmer nor his Foreign Secretary David Lammy have met any UK-based Chagossian leaders who oppose the deal, despite requests.
But the Chagossians based in Mauritius don’t unilaterally support the deal. Claudette Pauline, leader of the Chagos Asylum Group based in the country, says she does not support Mauritian sovereignty. Pauline was born on the island Peros Banhos in the archipelago.
She disagrees with the CRG. ‘I’m for a referendum because we unite with the British Chagossians, and the Mauritian government have never asked my group members what we want,’ she says. ‘Olivier Bancoult said he represents the majority of the Chagossians in his association. But this is not true. My group members and many Chagossians in the UK do not want Mauritius to have sovereignty of the Chagos Islands.’
Rather than bring the key group leaders from around the world to the negotiating table, or organise a referendum so every Chagossian has a chance to vote in the spirit of democracy, the UK and Mauritian governments have gaslit them. A foreign treaty on the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands has not yet been approved by the British parliament. There is still time to argue and win the democratic case.
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