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In 1965, Britain purchased the Chagos Islands from Mauritius for £3 million (US$4.1 million at current prices) to form the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).
Mauritius sold this archipelago of 65 islands in order to gain independence after three years and has since claimed these islands as its territory.
But between 1967 and 1973, about 2,000 aboriginal Chagoss were displaced from their tropical paradise homes to Mauritius and Seychelles to make way for a US military base on Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Islands— -This process is carried out in secret by the United Kingdom and the United Nations. America.
Britain has stated that it will cede the territory to Mauritius when it is no longer needed for defensive purposes.
Those who were forced to leave fell into poverty, Never allowed return.
Emmanuel Joseph Aglae lives a meager life in the freight industry, and he is one of them. His daughter Mary Linda left Mauritius to settle in the UK in 2010 after becoming a citizen of the British Overseas Territories.
In the UK, she works hard as a hotel maid, paying for air tickets for the children so that they can join her.
In 2012, they also arrived in the UK on a 6-month visa. 25-year-old Coralie and her teenage brother Jamel said goodbye to their grandfather Emmanuel, wondering if this would be the last time they saw him.
Coralie, second from left, pictured with her mother Marie Linda and two brothers [Courtesy of family]About 3,000 Chagoss and their descendants live in the UK, most of whom live in the small town of Crawley near Gatwick Airport in southeast England.
Coralie attended a university, studying travel and tourism-and aspired to become a flight attendant.
But when she needed to prove her identity, her dream stopped.
Coralie was born in Mauritius and holds a Mauritius passport. Her mother cannot inherit her British nationality, because children born outside the UK or eligible territories cannot obtain citizenship under British law.
“Chagos Islanders cannot pass on their British Overseas Territory citizenship [BOTC] To their children, because their children were not born there. But the reason for this is the government’s own actions, that is, since the 1960s, people have been forced to relocate to clear the way for the U.S. Air Force Base Diego Garcia,” Carl Soderbergh, director of policy and advocacy for the International Minority Rights Organization, told Al Jazeera.
“Although it is not their own fault, the Chagoss are now in a legal dilemma, and it is time for the British authorities to address this issue and all the other shocking injustices they face.”
Soderbergh said that the Chagoss faced “numerous injustices” because the UK “has always refused to take responsibility for the consequences of their forced displacement.”
On October 22, 2008, during a protest outside the London Parliament, a demonstrator demanding her return to the Chagos Islands of Diego Garcia yelled [Andrew Winning/Reuters]Coralie, the mother of two children, said she could not open a bank account and was financially dependent on her partner and mother.
“There is a lot of pressure,” she told Al Jazeera. “My children are growing up and I can’t do anything for them. I can’t work.”
She tried to resolve her citizenship issue through a lawyer, but was unsuccessful.
Chagoss usually spend 5,000 to 10,000 pounds (6,900 to 13,800 US dollars) on the road to citizenship.
Coralie said the incident is affecting her 55-year-old mother.
“She is getting older and has been working hard, working overtime to save money for her children. It is not easy for her.”
When she tried to establish a new life in the UK, Coralie’s father Poonusamy Moopin was a security guard and died three years ago. She lost her grandfather this year. Both died in Mauritius.
Now she hopes to visit her elderly grandmother in Mauritius.
“I don’t have any energy because I lost my hero, my father first. Then I lost my second hero, my grandpa. I really want to go to their funeral, but I can’t, “Corally said. “It’s still hard to believe that they are gone. I have always wanted to take care of my father at his funeral. I really want to see him for the last time and kiss him for the last time before he leaves. I can’t. Not even my grandpa. Me can not.”
“Until now I don’t know what will happen to us,” Coralie said.
The fuel tank on the edge of the military airstrip on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago, is also home to an important US military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased from the UK in 1966 [File: Reuters]Laura Jeffrey, a professor of immigration anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, said that under the 2002 British Overseas Territories Act, there are three restrictions on British citizenship.
“Discrimination against persons born to unmarried parents, restrictions related to the date of departure from the Chagos Islands, and restrictions on the transmission of citizenship to third and subsequent generations born [outside] Chagos Islands and non-Chagos spouses,” she said.
“In 2002, the British government argued that extending the eligibility to future generations would give Chagos Islanders privileges relative to the descent of other British overseas territories, and they would not be able to pass on their citizenship to descendants born outside the British overseas territories. “
Crowley’s Conservative Party Member Henry Smith said that he plans to propose amendments to the Nationality and Borders Act during the November reporting stage. If successful, it will waive naturalization fees and affect about 1,000 Chagoss descendants.
“The reason I am proposing this amendment is that since being forced into exile half a century ago, society has faced various injustices. If they had not been forcibly expelled, future generations would have the right to obtain British overseas territories. Today, citizenship covers Full British citizenship,” Smith told Al Jazeera by phone.
He explained that the amendment “is aimed at correcting this historical anomaly and trying to bring justice to people who have been frankly and very badly treated in the past half century.”
Coralie hopes for a positive result.
“Then we can work. Our dream is to stop our mother from working. We work for our mother and take care of her.
“My grandpa’s dream is to return to his country. He was born there.”
On January 14, 2005, protesting islanders from the Chagos Islands staged a demonstration in the Gulf of Mauritius.Then, British Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary Bill Lammell was accused of human rights violations in the face of protests from about 100 Indian Ocean islanders who had been deported from their homes to make way for US bases at the height of the Cold War [File: Nita Bhalla/Reuters]
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