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.
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