Britain Passes up Authority of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius

The British government inked an agreement to transfer the Chagos Islands to Mauritius on Thursday, after a judge removed a last-minute injunction resulting from a legal challenge by two Chagossian women. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that the decision to transfer the islands’ sovereignty to Mauritius secures the future of a US-UK military facility.

This is critical for our defence and intelligence, and so the safety and security of the British people. The full assessment of why this is so important is highly classified,” Starmer said at a press conference on Thursday.

The most significant island in the Indian Ocean archipelago, Diego Garcia, is home to a strategically significant naval and bomber station. According to the agreement, the UK would pay Mauritius 101 million pounds each year to lease back the base for at least 99 years. The signing was delayed for many hours as a UK court issued a last-minute injunction to prevent the move. Another court later removed the order.

The Chagos Islands, one of the final relics of the British Empire, have been controlled by the British since 1814. Britain separated the islands from Mauritius, a former British colony, in 1965, three years before Mauritius achieved independence.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Britain evicted up to 2,000 people from the islands so that the US military could create the Diego Garcia base, which has since supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan.

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