The UK should pay full and unconditional reparations to generations affected by its forcible displacement of Chagos Islands inhabitants in the 1960s and 70s, an action that constituted a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch has said.
The NGO said that individuals should be put on trial for the expulsion of Chagossians when the UK retained possession of what it refers to as British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT, after Mauritius gained independence in 1968.
Forced deportations were carried out so that the largest island, Diego Garcia, could be leased to the US to use as an airbase. Human Rights Watch (HRW) says this was a crime against humanity by both the UK and its transatlantic ally.
Additionally, it says the UK committed two more crimes against humanity by blocking the return of the Chagossians – despite UN’s highest court ruling that the continuing British occupation was illegal – and through racial persecution of the people.
Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at HRW and lead author of the 106-page report, published on Wednesday, said: “The UK is today committing an appalling colonial crime, treating all Chagossians as a people without rights.
“The UK and the US, who together expelled the Chagossians from their homes, should provide full reparations for the harm they have caused.”
The UK government recently opened negotiations with Mauritius over a handover of the islands. But HRW said the UK had neither committed to meaningful consultations with the Chagossian people nor, in the final settlement, committed to full and effective reparations, including the right of return.
The report, based on interviews with Chagossians, as well as UK, US and Mauritian officials, and a review of documents, says the UK and America abandoned the expelled Chagossians in Mauritius or Seychelles, where they lived in abject poverty.
Chagossians interviewed said that some people, including children, died from the economic hardship and, they believed, from the emotional devastation, which they called chagrin, of being torn from their homeland.
When many Chagossians moved to the UK, after the government granted them the right to apply for citizenship from 2002, they faced discrimination, including in housing and work, the report says.
In documents from the period of the expulsions, reviewed by HRW, senior British officials described the Chagossians as “Men Fridays … whose origins are obscure”, illustrating, the NGO says, the systemic racism behind the treatment of the islanders.
The report calls for the UK to immediately lift the ban on Chagossians permanently returning to their homeland and, along with the US, ensure financial and other support to restore the islands and enable the people to return and live and work in dignity.
It says reparations should be made to “every generation” and that King Charles should issue a “full and unreserved apology”.
It calls on the US to “ensure investigations into these crimes [against humanity] and accountability for the individuals and state institutions most responsible”.
Bernadette Dugasse, of Chagossian Voices, who was born on Diego Garcia and is attempting a legal challenge to the handover negotiations for their not consulting the Chagossian people, endorsed the report’s findings.
“UK ministers are still not considering us as human beings, as people with rights,” she said.
“I was dumped in the Seychelles, and the Mauritian government never recognised us and we never got any compensation. I agree there should be reparations, they should agree to let us return to our islands.”
A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We respect the work Human Rights Watch does around the world, but we categorically reject this characterisation of events.
“The UK has made clear its deep regret about the manner in which Chagossians were removed from BIOT in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“We remain committed to supporting Chagossians including through a significant support package and our new British citizenship route for Chagossians launched last November.”
The US embassy in London was approached for comment.
