Politics
Chagos Islands: A Story of Usurpation

Musa Adebayo
Imagine that one day, a stranger arrives at your doorstep. He seizes your house, forces you out of your house and forces you to move to another place. As if that weren't enough, he went ahead to rent this house to someone else! You approach the court seeking your rights. But alas! the prosecutor is the very person who stole your house, and the judge is the tenant now occupying it. Ultimately, you’re left with no choice but to strike a deal to use the garden of your own house!
You'd say, “No way!” wouldn't you? But unfortunately, it is happening. It’s a stark reality happening under the watchful eyes of international law. Maybe you think of Palestine, a similar tragedy the world knows too well... But this time the place we are talking about is very different: The sad story of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.
The Beginning of the Occupation
The British coveting the Chagos Archipelago, which is thousands of kilometres away from them, dates to the period of the British Empire. For Europeans, sailing across seas to claim and usurp the lands of others had long become a habit. At times, they would dispute among themselves over how to divide their stolen spoils.
Colonial ambitions in the Indian Ocean, spearheaded by the French, began in the mid-17th century. They initially settled on the islands of Réunion and Mauritius. By the 1770s, France had granted various companies the rights to exploit coconut oil in the Chagos Islands. However, after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, control of these territories shifted to the British. Thus, the Chagos Archipelago became a British colony, formally annexed as part of Mauritius.
By the 1960s, Britain's colonies began to gain independence one by one. The “empire on which the sun never set” was quickly shrinking. In this process, Mauritius also demanded independence. During this period, Mauritius also sought its independence. However, Britain attached a condition to this request: it would keep the Chagos Islands.
The Chagos Islands, a group of idyllic archipelagos, were home to about 2,000 people at the time. For these people, Chagos was more than just a geographical entity—it was their only homeland. Their forefathers had been born, raised, and lived on these islands. Chagos Islands are known for their natural beauty– teeming with coconut trees, vibrant birdlife, and rich marine biodiversity.
However, what truly attracted the British about the Chagos Islands wasn’t their natural beauty but their strategic location. The Islands lay right in a crossroad of the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa, making them a significant military point.
Evacuation of the Islands
From the mid-1960s onwards, the horrific plan for the forced eviction of the Chagos people began to be put into action. In the internal correspondence of the British government, a letter written by Patrick Wright, who was working as a secretary at the Commonwealth Office at the time, to Denis Greenhill, Head of the Colonial Office, draws attention. The letter contained the following statements: “We must surely be very tough about this. The object of the exercise is to get some rocks which will remain ours. There will be no indigenous population except seagulls who have not yet got a committee (the Status of Women Committee does not cover the rights of birds).”
Although, the Chagos Archipelago is a group of dozens of Islands. Three of them, Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, and Salomon, were home to a peaceful and thriving community. But this peace was shattered in 1971. The inhabitants were abruptly and forcibly removed from their homes. The reason? To clear the way for the construction of a US military base.
It was one of the most intense periods of the Cold War, and Britain offered to lease Diego Garcia Island, the largest of the archipelago, to the USA for 50 years to build a military base. In return for this lease, the US gave the UK a $14 million discount on the sale of Polaris missile systems.
In 1977, the military base at Diego Garcia opened with a 3,600-metre runway capable of accommodating large military cargo aircraft. The base also features a harbour equipped to dock two US Navy aircraft carriers simultaneously. Over the years, it has been used for launching the US long-range bombers that are responsible for killing thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today, Diego Garcia hosts approximately 2,500 US personnel and continues to be the subject of various controversies. Serious allegations of kidnappings, “black sites”, and torture centres are frequently raised. It has even been suggested that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared on 8 March 2014, might have been shut down from the base. In 2009, an American writer, David Vine, tried to unveil some of the dark sides of this infrastructure in his book “Island of Shame”.
A Cry to Return to Homeland
Despite decades of displacement, the Chagos people are determined to return to their land. For the past 20 years, they have been engaged in a legal struggle with the UK to reclaim their homeland. While some of them have been granted UK citizenship, Chagossians are not ready to forego their rights. However, in the struggle, another player exists: the Mauritian government.
In 2000, the High Court in England ruled that the indigenous people of the islands could return to 65 islands, but not to Diego Garcia, the largest and most habitable island. However, in 2004, the British government effectively overruled this decision by invoking the royal prerogative.
In 2019, the United Nations voted to decolonise the Chagos Islands. However, “birds of same feather flock together” they say, only the United Kingdom, the United States, Israel, Australia, Hungary and the Maldives voted against this decision. Another 55 countries, including France and Germany, abstained. However, given the double standards of international politics, this vote did not mean much. The UK, being a permanent member of the UN Security Council, did not recognise this resolution and continued to claim sovereignty over the islands.
While this legal struggle continued, in 2020, the UK began two years of negotiations with Mauritius. On 3 October 2024, the UK and Mauritius announced in a joint press release that the two countries have agreed that the UK transfers the control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. However, in the purported “historic agreement”, it was stated that this transfer would last for a renewable 99 years while the military base would remain there. Although Mauritius will be allowed to implement a resettlement programme, this will exclude Diego Garcia, the largest and most strategic island.
Even though this agreement has made world headlines and has been celebrated in some quarters, in reality it brings little change! Moreover, the Chagossians were not even party to the agreement. Just a month after the agreement, the newly elected Prime Minister, Navinchandra Ramgoolam, announced that he would review the agreement, accusing the previous government of betraying the nation’s interests.
Reflection
The story of the Chagos people is yet another example of the injustices perpetuated by the so-called superpowers. When the victims of these wrongs rise to fight for their rights, they are often denigrated by the media and labelled as terrorists. Whereas the usurpers are, in truth, the real culprits. As Allah reminds us in the Qur’an: "When they are told, “Do not spread corruption in the land,” they reply, “We are only peace-makers!." (Al-Baqarah 2:11-12)
Interestingly, the UK continues to retain sovereignty over 14 British Overseas Territories, most of which have a large number of islands. Each of these territories has its own unique and often troubling story. But then, what purposes do these territories serve?
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