Labour’s plan to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has sparked yet another legal battle, with two British women born on Diego Garcia vowing to take the Foreign Office to court. Just days after top Tory peers announced their own High Court challenge, Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe are stepping up, branding the move a “surrender.”
The two women, who want the right to return to their birthplace, argue the islands should remain British. The native Chagossians were forced to leave by 1973 to make way for a UK-US military base, and their long-standing fight for justice has now become a major flashpoint in Labour’s controversial deal. Dugasse and Pompe’s legal team has sent a pre-action letter to David Lammy’s department, accusing the Government of unlawfully excluding the Chagossians from the decision-making process.
