Chagossians urge UK to complete islands’ handover to Mauritius

Chagossian delegation with Jeremy Corbyn (back row, centre) during a visit to the UK to urge parliamentarians to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. Photograph: Handout View image in fullscreen Chagossian delegation with Jeremy Corbyn (back row, centre) during a visit to the UK to urge parliamentarians to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. Photograph: Handout Chagossians urge UK to complete islands’ handover to Mauritius Chagos Refugees delegation says issue ‘hijacked within the halls’ of politics on visit to UK A Chagossian delegation visiting the UK has urged parliamentarians to complete stalled legislation to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which they say has been “hijacked within the halls” of UK politics. The six-person contingent from the Chagos Refugees group expressed their full support for the UK to conclude an agreement after the government was forced to shelve legislation when the US dropped support for the agreement. “It’s not a question of sovereignty for us, the most important is our rights,” delegation leader Louis Olivier Bancoult told a room full of Chagossians, some native-born, gathered in West Sussex on Friday. “There is not a real will for the British government to find a solution for our people. We need to find a way,” he added. “We’re still suffering and our position is clear, we have the right to live in our birthplace.” In 1996, Bancoult started a legal battle against the UK government and has continued to fight for their return after his family was uprooted in 1965 and unable to return after travelling to Mauritius for his sister’s illness. The delegation has also said the current legal restrictions under the British Indian Ocean Territory regime prohibit resettlement, and criticised far-right UK leaders and press over narratives claiming they are a “pure, isolated race” with no ties to Mauritius, and that they oppose a negotiated settlement. “We have watched with profound concern as the sacred issue of our human rights has been hijacked within the halls of UK politics,” said Bancoult in a parliamentary briefing statement. Delegation member Rosemonde Bertin was deported to Mauritius in 1972 and was the last person to give birth on Chagos Island, she told the room. She had the opportunity to visit Chagos Island with permission, and regretted how she was unable to spend more than a day in her birthplace. “How can it be that I was born in Chagos, but I cannot go there without permission and other people, third and fourth generation can go and stay there?” she said in Creole. Other individuals present, who left as children, spoke of the desire to return to Chagos Island and of their wishes to die in their birthplaces. Also in attendance was Liseby Elyse, who when forced to leave the island in 1973, suffered a pregnancy loss at four months. “[We] expect nothing more than justice for the hardship that we have suffered all these years,” said 71-year-old Joseph Bertrand, who lives in the UK after being f