Liz Truss recommended that a group of Tamil asylum seekers stranded on a tiny British territory in the Indian Ocean be brought to the UK because of a “credible threat of mass suicide”, documents show.
Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Islands, which the UK calls the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and over which it continues to claim sovereignty despite a UN court ruling that they are part of Mauritius.
Eighty-nine asylum seekers arrived on the island on 3 October 2021 after fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka. They had travelled from India in a fishing boat in the hope of claiming asylum in Canada, but got into difficulties. They were rescued and taken to Diego Garcia, where they have since been looked after by British forces there; 29 have now left the island, but 60 remain.
Initially the British Indian Ocean Territory commissioner said the group could be lawfully returned to Sri Lanka, but that decision was reversed after a legal challenge by 10 of them.
Documents disclosed as part of that challenge show that on 6 March 2022, the foreign secretary at the time, Liz Truss, advocated that the group be permitted to come to the UK.
“The foreign secretary strongly supports the government’s overall posture on migration. However, she feels the unique circumstances and severity of risks in this situation require us to take extraordinary action and bring the migrants to the UK for processing,” a letter states.
The letter says that, while discussions were under way about whether it would be lawful to “potentially forcibly” return the migrants to Sri Lanka, Truss favoured a different approach, in part due to a “credible threat of mass suicide” made by the group on 3 March.
A UK government spokesperson distanced themselves from Truss’s letter, saying the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) could not “become a backdoor migration route to the UK”.
“BIOT is not a suitable long-term place of residence for migrants and the UK government remains committed to supporting their departure and to ensuring that they are not at risk of persecution on return to their country of origin,” they said.
“Enabling migrants to come to the UK from BIOT would only incentivise further irregular migration, and enable criminal gangs to exploit individuals to make dangerous journeys across the sea.”
Reassessments of the asylum claims of those stranded on Diego Garcia will now take place, with the reviews conducted by people who have had no previous involvement in the case.
Liz Truss has been approached for comment.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
