The Tamils stranded on ‘secretive’ British island in Indian Ocean

A paradise island within the Indian Ocean has develop into the centre of a fancy authorized dispute, a battle for management – and a “jail” for stranded migrants.

In 2021, Sri Lankan Tamils fleeing persecution tried to sail to Canada to say asylum, when their fishing boat suffered a leak. British navy ships rescued dozens and introduced them to Diego Garcia, the most important of the disputed Chagos Islands within the British Indian Ocean Territory (Biot) – lengthy claimed by Mauritius – and website of a secretive army base leased by the UK to the US. The group of 60, together with at the least 16 youngsters, declare to have been “unlawfully detained” since: the primary individuals to file asylum claims within the Biot.

The territory’s Supreme Court docket was as a consequence of rule on the declare final week, however hours earlier than the choose and attorneys received on the US army aircraft to start out their journey, the US cancelled the listening to. Officers stated they have been “withdrawing its consent” for entry to the “closely restricted” island, with communication seen by the BBC describing the explanations as “confidential” – however that the go to introduced “dangers to the safety and efficient operation” of the bottom. 

However elements of the island the place entry was denied (reminiscent of a fitness center and a swimming pool) have been visited by US cheerleaders and movie star cooks earlier this 12 months. The truth that the Biot Supreme Court docket has been “prevented from sitting in its personal territory on Crown land is a rare affront to the rule of regulation”, stated Tessa Gregory, a accomplice at Leigh Day, the London-based solicitors representing the Tamils.

The dispute over the Chagos Islands

Diego Garcia is the most important of the Chagos Islands, an archipelago about 310 miles south of The Maldives. The Biot is constitutionally separate from the UK, however administered from London. 

The UK took the Chagos Islands from its then colony Mauritius in 1965 and evicted the inhabitants of greater than 1,000 individuals, to construct a army base. It signed an settlement in 1966 to lease the bottom to the US for 50 years, which has been prolonged and is now set to run out in 2036. So though Diego Garcia is technically in a British territory, a lot of the island is below US army management, together with the lodging and transport. 

The US has despatched planes from Diego Garcia to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq, whereas two B52 bombers have been despatched there for coaching earlier this 12 months. The CIA has additionally denied allegations that it has been used as a base to interrogate terror suspects after 9/11.

Since Mauritius gained its independence in 1968, it has claimed possession of the islands. In 2000, the British Excessive Court docket dominated that the forceful eviction of Chagossians had been unlawful, and granted them proper of return – to any island besides Diego Garcia.

The Worldwide Court docket of Justice dominated in 2019 that the UK’s management of the entire territory was “illegal” and may finish. In 2021, a separate UN maritime court docket discovered that the UK’s management of the islands amounted to an “illegal occupation”.

However “no matter widespread worldwide opinion in favour of Mauritius, London has largely ignored these selections”, stated Overseas Coverage. The UK authorities additionally argues that the refugee conference doesn’t apply there. 

Overseas Workplace plans to provide the Chagos Islands again to Mauritius in a “Cyprus-style deal” have been scrapped earlier this 12 months, stated The Telegraph. Then defence secretary Grant Shapps “urged” David Cameron to not cede the islands to Mauritius – a rising ally of China. 

The plight of migrants on Diego Garcia

“In some ways, the island – with its pure white sands, palm bushes and azure seas – appears loads like paradise”, stated The Guardian. However for the 60 asylum seekers, “that idyll couldn’t be farther from their actuality” – they continue to be “caught there” in a “determined, harmful limbo”.

They’re compelled to stay in a “makeshift tented camp the scale of a soccer pitch, surrounded by a 7ft-high metallic fence”. The tents are “infested with rats, mice and cockroaches”. One particular person instructed the paper: “My psychological state is deteriorating. I stay in a physique that has no life inside it”.  

Lots of the detainees “say they’re escaping torture and persecution by both Sri Lankan safety forces” as a consequence of their Tamil ethnicity, stated The New Humanitarian, or Indian safety forces as a consequence of being Sri Lankan refugees.

However on Diego Garcia, guarded by non-public safety firm G4S, “they’re treating us like prisoners”, two asylum seekers stated in an nameless written assertion. A G4S spokesperson denied the claims, saying the corporate “treats the migrants on the island with dignity and respect always”.

However there have been “a number of suicide makes an attempt” and “reviews of sexual harassment and assaults”, stated the BBC. Some have been flown to Rwanda for medical therapy, however stay below Biot administration. “Throughout Tuesday’s digital listening to, one of many migrants on the island collapsed a number of instances.”

Final 12 months, UN representatives who visited the camp reported that “circumstances there amounted to arbitrary detention”. The Overseas Workplace has additionally stated that the island is just not appropriate for migrants. A ruling of their favour may enable them to say compensation for years of detention, in addition to having implications for Chagossians’ requires reparations for his or her eviction.

The asylum seekers are “pinning all their hopes on their authorized groups to get them off the island and to a spot of security the place their troubled youngsters can thrive”, stated The Guardian. One instructed the paper: “We hope we can be allowed to flee from hell.”