Pointe aux Sables, Mauritius – “At one funeral, we scattered sand from Chagos into an elder’s tomb to honour his unfulfilled want to breathe his final in his homeland,” says Olivier Bancoult of the Chagos Refugees Group.
For aged Chagossians displaced from their Indian Ocean homeland many years in the past, delays to a treaty permitting their return are elevating fears that they might by no means see the islands once more.
The settlement, signed by Britain and Mauritius in Could 2025, would enable resettlement on islands apart from Diego Garcia, which might stay a army base. However it has but to enter into power amid opposition from US President Donald Trump.
“We stay unshaken by Trump’s interference within the Chagos deal,” Bancoult says.
“The 2019 ICJ advisory opinion in favour of the archipelago’s return to Mauritius has restored our dignity and religion in our rights as native Chagossians.”
The Chagos archipelago, a bunch of islands within the Indian Ocean, was separated from Mauritius by Britain in 1965, three years earlier than Mauritius gained independence. Britain later established a army base with the US on Diego Garcia, the most important island within the group.
Between 1968 and 1973, Britain eliminated an estimated 1,400 to 1,700 Chagossians from the islands. Many have been resettled in Mauritius and the Seychelles, with others later transferring to the UK. British authorities additionally made it unlawful to stay on or return to the islands with out permission.
“If Trump needs to meddle on this matter, nicely, let him,” Bancoult says. “We’ve had the 2019 ICJ [International Court of Justice] advisory opinion, the Worldwide Tribunal for the Legislation of the Sea’s 2021 judgement, and the 2025 UK-Mauritius treaty offering for Mauritius to train sovereignty over the archipelago. Worldwide regulation is squarely on our aspect.”
Signed on Could 22, 2025, the treaty offers for Mauritius to train sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago, whereas permitting the UK to train rights over the Diego Garcia army base for an preliminary 99-year interval. It additionally permits Mauritius to rearrange for the resettlement of Chagossians on islands apart from Diego Garcia. The treaty has not but entered into power.
In April, the UK authorities informed Parliament that the laws wanted to implement the settlement couldn’t full its passage throughout the 2024–26 parliamentary session. The session ended on April 29, that means the invoice made no additional progress.
In January, Trump criticised the agreement, calling it an “act of nice stupidity ” and questioning whether or not it adequately protected the Diego Garcia army base.
The problem returned to the diplomatic agenda in September. On September 21, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham mentioned the UK would work with Mauritius and the US on a manner ahead that secures the operation of Diego Garcia and protects UK nationwide safety.
On September 26, Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam travelled to the UK for talks with British Nationwide Safety Adviser Jonathan Powell and different officers on the Chagos subject. He stays in London, with the Mauritian authorities saying the discussions would cowl latest developments in regards to the archipelago.
For Bancoult, the central query is whether or not aged Chagossians will dwell lengthy sufficient to see the treaty’s guarantees fulfilled.
“Chagossians born on the archipelago at the moment are aged between 58 and 100. We’re rising previous, and we’ve misplaced a number of Chagossian elders this 12 months alone,” he says.
For youthful Chagossians, the implications are additionally cultural.
Chrisyl Wong-Hold-Solar, a PhD researcher in anthropology on the College of Edinburgh, says years of displacement and migration are making it more durable to protect Chagossian tradition.
“Throughout my fieldwork, many diaspora members expressed considerations over cultural loss, resembling phrases in Chagossian Creole and recipes which can be tough to recreate overseas,” she says. “Descendants of Chagossians, myself included, lengthy to know the islands of their family and ancestors.”
The dispute has additionally uncovered political variations amongst Chagossians.
“The actions of each the British and Mauritian governments have resulted in very nuanced and differing political beliefs amongst Chagossians throughout the UK, Mauritius and the Seychelles,” Wong-Hold-Solar says.
The Chagos Refugees Group is at odds with UK-based second-generation Chagossian Misley Mandarin and his supporters, who favour resettlement underneath British reasonably than Mauritian sovereignty and have acquired backing from Reform UK.
Wong-Hold-Solar says these variations ought to be recognised as negotiations proceed.
Each governments, she says, have to “discover methods to prioritise and interact with the Chagossian diaspora as an entire”.
Mauritius retains talks largely non-public
Mauritius has disclosed little publicly concerning the substance of the newest talks on Chagos.
On the United Nations Normal Meeting in September, Overseas Minister Dhananjay Ramful reiterated Mauritius’ place that its sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago was “non-negotiable”. He additionally described the 2025 settlement as a vindication of worldwide regulation and mentioned Mauritius was dedicated to diplomacy and dialogue over the difficulty.
Past official statements and communiques, the Mauritian authorities has supplied few particulars concerning the substance of the present discussions.
Worldwide relations guide Bruno Donat, who has beforehand labored on the UN, says Mauritius ought to concentrate on sustained engagement with diplomatic companions, together with the African Union, small island states, the Commonwealth Secretariat and sympathetic voices within the US Congress.
“Being in New York corridors for a photograph” is just not the precedence, Donat says. Sustained engagement, he argues, can construct strain on Washington and stop the difficulty from remaining unresolved indefinitely.
The Chagos Refugees Group has pursued an analogous method. In June, two months after the treaty stalled, its members travelled to the UK to foyer representatives of British political events, except for Reform UK.
The unresolved query of Diego Garcia
However Diego Garcia stays probably the most contentious a part of the settlement.
Lalit, a Mauritian political organisation that has campaigned for many years for the closure of the bottom, opposes its continued army use. Lindsey Collen of Lalit says the treaty, because it stood in April, would have saved the bottom open and introduced Mauritius into a more in-depth relationship with the US army presence on the island.
“Along with the ethical accountability, we’ve the data that we would turn into a goal for self-defence if our land is used this manner,” she says.
Collen can be involved a couple of new partnership between the Mauritius Police Pressure and the New Mexico Nationwide Guard, in addition to what she describes because the “huge military-looking buildings” of the brand new US embassy in Mauritius.
Donat argues that the treaty may as an alternative give Mauritius better leverage over how Diego Garcia is used.
“Mauritius has publicly said that the strikes launched from Diego Garcia towards Iran breached worldwide regulation,” he says. “That’s not the place of a authorities staying silent to guard a lease cost.”
For Bancoult, these wider strategic questions are secondary to the necessity to make sure that aged Chagossians have the possibility to return to their homeland throughout their lifetimes.
“We’re against battle, ethically, however we’re additionally working out of time.”
The Chagos Refugees Group hopes to quickly have fun the one hundred and first birthday of certainly one of its members.
“God keen, he’ll stick with us for extra years,” Bancoult says.
