Britain signed an agreement handing sovereignty over the contested and strategically located Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a move the government says ensures the future of a U.S.-U.K. military base that is vital to British security.
The Indian Ocean archipelago is home to a strategically important naval and bomber base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia.
Under the agreement, the U.K. will pay Mauritius 101 million pounds ($136 million) per year to lease back the base for at least 99 years. Starmer said that base, operated by U.S. forces, is crucial for British counterterrorism and intelligence and is “right at the foundation of our safety and security at home.”
Displaced islanders have fought unsuccessfully in U.K. courts for years for the right to go home. Chagos-born Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, who brought the latest legal challenge, fear it will become even harder to return to their birthplace once Mauritius takes control.
The deal establishes a trust fund to benefit the Chagossians and says “Mauritius is free to implement a program of resettlement” on the islands, other than Diego Garcia. But it does not require the residents to be resettled.
One of the last remnants of the British Empire, the Chagos Islands have been under U.K. control since 1814. Britain split the islands away from Mauritius, a former British colony, in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence.
Britain evicted as many as 2,000 people from the islands in the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build the Diego Garcia base.
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