Chagos islanders must get full reparations for forced exile, says NGO

Chagossians protesting, seven years ago, outside the high court in London over the deportations from the Indian Ocean islands from 1967 to 1973. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA

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.