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United Kingdom - British Indian Ocean Territory

Status: UK overseas territory

Geography

The British Indian Ocean Territory consists of a group of islands, the Chagos Archipelago, forming the southern extension of the Maldives Ridge off south-west India. It lies 1,770km east of Seychelles and 1,930km north-east of Mauritius.

Area: The territory covers approx. 54,400 sq km of ocean.

Topography/wildlife: The largest island, Diego Garcia, has an area of 44 sq km and is V-shaped, its two arms enclosing a large deep lagoon. The islands are home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, including several now-endangered species of crabs and turtles.

Society

Population: No permanent settled population. The only inhabitants are UK and US military personnel and civilian contract employees, all living on Diego Garcia. In September 2003, these numbered approximately 3,000 persons. The former population has been resettled (see below).

Economy

Overview: There is no economic activity in the territory which is used for defence purposes, but there is a licensed fishery in the 370-km fisheries conservation and management zone.

History

The Chagos islands were first discovered by Portuguese mariners in the early 16th century. The French assumed sovereignty more than two centuries later and began to exploit the hitherto uninhabited islands for copra in the 1780s. The islands became British when ceded by France to Britain , together with Mauritius and Seychelles , in 1814.

Following the French practice, they continued to be administered from Mauritius . Prior to Mauritius achieving independence and with the agreement of the Mauritius Council of Ministers, the islands were detached in 1965 to form part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), together with some other small island groups that were detached from (but later reverted to) Seychelles.

The British Government entered into an agreement with the USA in 1966 whereby the Territory was to remain available for the defence needs of the two countries for an initial period of 50 years. Following this the copra plantations were run down and closed. In the late 1960s/early 1970s arrangements were made for the islanders to be relocated to Mauritius and Seychelles. The vast majority of them (some 1,200) were relocated to Mauritius. At that time, the UK made UK £650,000 available to the Mauritius Government for the express purpose of assisting resettlement.

In the mid-1970s a member of the Chagossian community in Mauritius started legal proceedings against the British Government in the English courts, claiming among other things that he had been wrongfully removed from the islands. Under an agreement reached in 1982 the legal proceedings were withdrawn and the UK made an ex-gratia payment of UK £4 million for the benefit of the Chagossian community in Mauritius.

In 1998 another member of the Chagossian community instituted judicial review proceedings challenging the validity of BIOT’s Immigration Ordinance 1971, which prohibited the entry of any person into any part of the Territory unless he obtained a permit to do so. The judgment in November 2000 held that the 1971 ordinance was indeed invalid and it was replaced by a new ordinance that allows the Chagossians to return and reside in any part of the Territory except (for defence reasons) Diego Garcia.

No Chagossians have returned to the islands to live since the new ordinance was enacted. The islands other than Diego Garcia are uninhabited and have no facilities on them to support a settled population. There are a few disintegrated remains of buildings from the copra plantation days, but these are unusable. There is no clean water supply, no power and no transport.

In February 2002, the Chagos Refugees Group, a Mauritius-based group of Chagos islanders, applied to the UK courts for further compensation and assisted resettlement on all of the islands including Diego Garcia. The court case started in October 2002 and, in October 2003, the courts found in favour of the UK Government but allowed the islanders to appeal on some of the issues.

In June 2004, the UK Government passed an order in council banning the islanders from the Chagos Islands and the islanders then applied for a judicial review of the order in council. In May 2006 the UK High Court overturned this order in council giving the islanders the right to return. In May 2007 the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s decision ruling that the methods used in banning the islanders from returning to the islands was unlawful. In November 2007, the UK House of Lords gave the UK Government permission to challenge the Court of Appeal’s ruling with the proviso that the government cover the cost of the appeal, whatever the outcome. In October 2008 the UK Law Lords upheld the UK Government’s appeal, denying the islanders the right to return to the Islands.

Administration

The Chagos Archipelago is Crown property administered from London by a commissioner assisted by the officer in charge of the Royal Navy complement on Diego Garcia. The islands are also subject to a claim by Mauritius.