The UK has agreed to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a historic deal. Here we detail the history of the archipelago.
1783
The first inhabitants arrive on the Chagos Islands: enslaved Africans, who are put to work on coconut plantations, producing copra, created by the French. Later, after their emancipation, indentured Indians arrive.
1814
After Napoleon’s abdication and exile during the Napoleonic wars, Britain formally takes possession of the Chagos Islands and nearby Mauritius from France.
1965
The Chagos Islands become the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) amid discussions with Mauritius over independence, and with the UK having agreed with the US to create a military base on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.
1968
Mauritius is granted independence but the UK retains control of the BIOT.
1967-1973
The entire population of the Chagos Islands are forced to leave their homes, with most moving to the main island of Mauritius or to Seychelles, thousands of kilometres away. Human Rights Watch has called the forcible displacement an “appalling colonial crime” and a crime against humanity.
1982
The UK government agrees to pay £4m into a trust fund for the Chagossians, set up under a Mauritian statute.
2000
The UK high court finds the expulsion of the Chagossians to be unlawful.
2008
The House of Lords, then the UK’s highest court, decides against the right of return for Chagossians, overturning a series of decisions by judges in lower British courts that had found their exile to be unlawful.
2010
A US diplomatic cable dated May 2009, disclosed by WikiLeaks, reveals that a UK Foreign Office official had told the US that a decision to set up a “marine protected area” (MPA) would “put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago’s former residents”.
2015
A UN tribunal rules that Britain acted illegally in the way it created a marine protected area (MPA) in the Chagos Islands, saying it had to failed to consult Mauritius and illegally deprived it of fishing rights.
2016
The UK government announces a £40m support package to assist and compensate Chagossians living in the UK, but still refuses to let them return home.
2019
In an advisory opinion, the UN’s highest court, the international court of justice, rules that continued British occupation of the remote Indian Ocean archipelago is illegal and orders the UK to hand it back to Mauritius “as rapidly as possible”.
The UN general assembly overwhelmingly backs a motion condemning Britain’s occupation of the islands. The motion sets a six-month deadline for Britain to withdraw and for the islands to be reunified with Mauritius, but the UK does not comply.
2021
The UN’s special international maritime court rejects the UK’s claim to sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, and the prime minister of Mauritius urges it to end its “unlawful occupation”.
2021
A group of Tamil asylum seekers fleeing Sri Lanka in a fishing boat are rescued and taken to Diego Garcia. They remain there in what they have described as horrific, prison-like conditions. Reports of attempted suicides and self-harm have been rife.
2022
The UK announces that it has agreed to open negotiations with Mauritius over the future handover of the Chagos Islands.
2024
The UK agrees to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony, although it will retain control over the military base on Diego Garcia, which it operates jointly with the US.
