After decades of dispute, Great Britain has now agreed to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, but retains control of the largest island, Diego Garcia.

The last British Colony in Africa

1544 The Spaniard Diego García de Moguer discovers the archipelago for the Portuguese crown. At the end of the 17th century, France claims the area and colonises several island groups.

1786 An expedition of the British East India Company takes possession of Diego Garcia.

1810 Mauritius and the Chagos Archipelago with its 60 islands officially become British.

1834 Slavery is abolished. Contract labourers for the plantations are imported, many from India.

1903 The Chagos Islands are administratively attached to Mauritius.

1965 The UN General Assembly passes a resolution to grant Mauritius, including the Chagos Islands, independence.

1966 Great Britain leases the island of Diego Garcia to the USA for 50 years. The lease was extended until 2036.

1968 Mauritius becomes independent. The Chagos Islands, however, remain British. Despite several resolutions by international organisations calling for the islands to be returned to Mauritius, the British government refuses to implement the resolutions.

A fair Solution

After long negotiations, Great Britain accepted to transfer sovereignty over the archipelago to Mauritius, but retained the rights of use over the US military bases on the island of Diego Garcias for another 99 years. Almost 2000 displaced inhabitants were forced to move to Great Britain, Mauritius or the Seychelles. They and their descendants later received a compensation. One aim of the agreements is also to prevent the Indian Ocean from being used as a migration route to Europe.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the ‘historic decision’.

The Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, declared that the agreement ‘marks the completion of the efforts to decolonise the archipelago.’

After almost 60 years and a protracted legal battle in international courts, sovereignty over the group of more than 60 islands has thus been transferred to Mauritius.

A strategically import Base

A glance at the map explains why control over the island of Diego Garcia in particular is so controversial and why it is forbidden to enter the island. The USA has built a huge military base there, where an estimated 5,000 military personnel and weapons of all kinds, including nuclear weapons, are stationed. The bases are of great strategic importance to the USA in particular for military operations in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, They were used by the US Air Force in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

Unwanted visitors and indigenous people

The island got again public attention in October 2023 when a ship carrying 89 Tamils got into distress nearby and was brought to the island. A Royal Navy ship escorted the boat ashore and took the refugees to a camp. The Tamils said they were being persecuted in their homeland and intended to come to Canada to seek asylum. They had started their journey 18 days ago in Tamil Nadu.

The original population are descendants  of African slaves who were brought to the uninhabited islands by the French in the late 18th century.

The Chagos Archipelago is a group of more than 56 low-lying coral atolls with a total area of around 60,000 square km, of which the island of Diego Garcia is the largest.  It is located 200 kilometres from the other main island groups, the Peros Banhos group and the Salamon Islands. The small and widely scattered islands are about 2000 km away from Mauritius and the Seychelles, with which they have been culturally, economically and administratively linked for about 200 years.

 

 

“The agreement shows that it is also possible for a small country to achieve ‘justice in the face of great powers’.”

Pravind Jugnauth, President of Mauritius

 

Netzwerk Afrika Deutschland (NAD)

nad.bonn@netzwerkafrika.de