For Olivier Bancoult, of the Chagos Refugee Group, it was the sight of two skuas gliding over the waves that heralded long-promised landfall on his native islands.
During the first three days of the voyage from Seychelles there had been remarkably few seabirds, until the Mauritian-chartered Bleu De Nîmes, a cruise ship converted from its former use as a British minesweeper, neared the Chagos Islands.
